HighSchool Blues
by EdenStar
Summary: Akatsuki Centric, AU. High school always has weird moments, but when you're in a band, it can seem weirder. Somehow, when you dream of fame, someone always has to come along and ruin it for you...
1. The School Year Begins

**A/N:** This is my first Naruto fic. Go me! This story is dedicated to Sori, Kisa, Ita, and Toby. I love you all. I know the whole AU highschool thing is probably over-done, but whatever. This is AU with a twist. And I like twists. LOL

**Summery:** It's not easy being a high-school Freshman. When your elder brother is a Senior _and_ the lead singer of Akatsuki, a famous band, you're the obsession of every girl in your class, and the guy you hated since Kindergarden is suddenly starting to look attractive to you, things start seeming evenharder. Add crazy teachers to the mix and you're in for a wild ride. And they said high school can be boring...

**Warning**: There **will** be Shonen-Ai content here. If you don't like this, then don't read it. No one is twisting your arm and saying "Look. A SasuXNaru pairing, read now". You are perfectly free to leave, and I ask you do so if such pairings offend you. Flames from people soley because they dislike my pairings will NOT be tolerated. I'm slightly evil, I will make flamers who flame because of my pairings appear to be the biggest assholes on the planet. Don't do it.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto, its characters, or anything of that sort. I also don't own the songs the band is singing. Lyrics have been translated/altered to make sense, and can be from Saint Seiya, WeiB Kruez, or Samurai Troopers, depending what I find appropriate. All I own is this fanfiction, the fanfiction's plot, an Akatsuki cloak, and a slashed Leaf headband. I am a high school Senior myself, so suing me would be kind of pointless. So I'll make you a deal-you don't sue, and I won't cry...

Alright! Ready! Go!

**The light in their eyes proves purity. They are like shooting stars-they must burn themselves ****to gleam. They fight really like ancient heros. They all go, their team is tight, because they share ****one soilder's dream.**

Fourteen-year-old Uchiha Sasuke pried his eyes open to the sound of heavy music blasting. He glanced at his clock-4:30 in the morning. He grumbled. While most people were fast asleep at this hour, trying to cling to the last hour or whatever they had left to sleep, his 17-year-old brother, Itachi, and Itachi's friends were wide awake, practicing for their next concert. You see, Uchiha Itachi was not your average 17-year-old boy. He was the lead singer of a famous band called Akatsuki. Itachi and three of his friends since grade school had started their band two years ago, however, it was only recently that the four friends were struck with popularity.

Sasuke sighed and swung his legs over the side of his bed to tell them off for being so loud. Maybe they didn't care that they had school in three hours' time, but he needed his rest. It was his first day at his new school, for crying out loud. Abruptly, the music stopped playing. A male voice called out "Ew! No! Kisame, don't play the guitar with your tounge, un! That's gross!" which was followed by laughter.

"Orochimaru would do it", a second voice said once the laughter died away.

"Orochimaru is weird, un! You don't want to be like him, un!"

"Shh. Keep it down, or we'll wake up Sasuke-kun", a new voice cut in.

"Too late", Sasuke said, looking at the four band members. All of them wore pajamas.

"Oh! We're sorry, un.", the first voice replied. It belonged to a very pretty boy who wore half his blond hair in a ponytail high on his head. The other half rested against his shoulder blades, and he had bright blue-green eyes. He really looked like a girl, a fact that wasn't helped much by the fact that his pajamas were pink with little red cherries all over them. His name was Deidara, he'd met Itachi back in the second grade.

"Well, how do you expect the kid to sleep with you two carrying on about the band teacher?", a boy with short red hair asked, his reddish-brown eyes sharp, but not unkind. He was pale, and wore a set of red pajamas that complimented his eye color. His name was Sasori, and he had joined Itachi's crew in the fifth grade.

"We can't be serious all the time. We're sacrificing sleep to do this, we might as well have some fun doing this". This was Kisame, Itachi's best friend since Kindergarden, though Sasuke privately thought that the relationship between Kisame and his brother might be warmer than friendship. Kisame had messy black hair and a very shark-like appearance. He was taller than the other boys by easilly a foot, possibly more, and wore a pair of deep navy pajamas.

"Are you ready for your first day?", Sasuke's brother asked. He was wearing white pajamas with a matching bathrobe. Itachi looked almost exactly like an older version of Sasuke, except he wore his hair long and neat, while Sasuke's hair often looked like he'd gotten into a fight with a weedwacker and the weedwacker had won. Rich black hair hung to the middle of Itachi's back, except for the front, which hung around his pale face, and his dark eyes were glowing in mischief. Sasuke scowled.

"Why don't you go practice somewhere else?", he practically snarled at his older brother. Itachi could be so annoying sometimes.

"Awww. Does the little baby need his beauty sleep because he's not as attractive as his older brother?", Itachi teased playfully.

"Newsflash, we have the same face". The older Uchiha brother might have been in the mood to play around, but the younger was sleep-deprived, facing his first day at a new school, and just generally in a foul mood.

"But I have better hair". Itachi tossed his gleaming hair as though to make a point, a smirk on his face. "Anyhow, we're done now. We're going to pack up, get dressed, and grab some breakfast before we head to school. If you hurry, you can join us".

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Might as well. I'm awake now".

"That's the spirit. Plus sitting with us for breakfast will earn you the attention of all the pretty young girls-not that you'll need me, of course. You're an Uchiha, after all".

"Whatever". Sasuke stalked off towards his room to grab some clothes so he could take a shower. Something told him that this was going to be a very long day.

There was one good thing about Itachi's driving-it was so terrifying, it sent a person into fight or flight mode the moment the older Uchiha placed the key into the ignition and pressed the emergency brake down. For the life of him, Sasuke could not figure out how Itachi had managed to get a driver's license, though he suspected that the instructor had been a female, and Itachi had wooed her with his good looks. His brother was devious like that. Currently Sasuke was seated in the backseat of Itachi's car between Deidara and Sasori. Kisame was the unlucky person who had to be in the front seat with Itachi.

"I don't think I'm hungry anymore, un", Deidara said fifteen-minutes later as they pulled into the resteraunt parking lot. His pretty face was pinched, as though he was fighting the urge to throw up. Sasuke knew how he felt, his own stomach felt as though he had swallowed twenty living snakes.

"I think I need an ambulance", Kisame grunted. His head had smacked the window more than once when Itachi had stopped short-and this was because he was wearing a seatbelt.

"Aw, you're all fine", Itachi said. He was in a vey good mood, something Sasuke was prepared to strangle him for. Why should Itachi get to be so happy when he and the other boys felt like they were about to die. Itachi had hydroplaned on sand-sand, of all things. How was it even possible to hydroplane on sand?

"LAND!", Kisame called as they all exited Itachi's car. He was on his hands and knees, hugging the pavement, while other resteraunt patrons stared. Sasori was supporting Deidara, who still looked as though he were going to be sick. Sasuke then realized he was pretty lucky-he'd been in the middle seat, safely tucked between the two older boys, and therefore had managed to escape without any bumps or bruises. The bump that was starting to form on Kisame's forehead did not look too pleasent.

"I thought I heard a ruckus. What are you doing?". A girl around Itachi's age stepped forward. She wore her blond hair in four ponytails, and her deep green eyes flashed with amusement. Her name was Temari, and she was in Itachi's grade. Sasuke was familiar with her because her younger brother Kankuro hung out with Itachi's crew, and her other younger brother, Gaara, had been in Sasuke's classes for as long as he could remember. Also with the siblings was Sasuke and Itachi's own cousin, Toby (A/N: If you're familar with Toby, you'll know why I made him their cousin, and if you're not, well, either look him up, or pretend he's an OC). Toby, a Junior like Kankuro, had been trying to get Itachi to let him join Akatsuki for a while now. Unfortunately, Akatsuki already had a lead singer, and Toby was dangerous with musical instruments, so Toby was left out of the band. He wasn't on bad terms with Itachi, though, as he still continued to hang around with his group.

"Deidara, how are you doing?", Toby asked, smiling at the blond. Deidara's response was to hide behind Sasori. It was well-known that Toby had a crush on the playful and energetic blond, however, Deidara seemed to like Sasori, which made quite an interesting love triangle. Everyone laughed at Deidara's repsonse to Toby.

"Do you guys want to join us for breakfast?", Kisame asked. He had finally gotten off the floor thanks to a kick from Itachi.

Temari shook her head. "We actually just finished. We're heading to the school now to show Gaara around so he won't get lost".

"I'll stay with you guys for breakfast!", Toby said happilly. "I think I still have room!"

"Oh, goodie. I can hardly believe my luck, un", Deidara mumbled as Toby threw his arm around his shoulders. Sasori looked mildly annoyed with Toby's behavior.

"Ah, It's ok, guys. Toby can join us for breakfast. We'll put him in the trunk when it's time to go to school", Itachi said.

"Yay! I get to ride in the trunk!"

Temari and Kankuro laughed, and Gaara rolled his eyes.

"We'll see you guys later", Kankuro called. He and his brother and sister then walked away, leaving Sasuke and the Akatsuki members alone with the demented Toby. Sasuke sighed-Toby reminded him of this boy, Naruto, who was in his grade. Naruto annoyed Sasuke to no end, so breakfast with Toby was not a pleasent experience for the younger Uchiha brother.

"Do you have enough syrup on your waffles, Deidara? They don't look very sweet..." Toby was at it it again. Poor Deidara. Sasuke would go crazy if he had someone like Toby trying to get his affections.

"They're sweet enough, un. I don't like lots of sugar this early in the morning, un"

"The morning time is the best time to have sugar."

"Leave him alone", Sasori cut in. He wasn't eating anything, just sipping a cup of plain black coffee. "If he doesn't want to drown his waffles in syrup, that's his choice. He's the one who's eating them" Sasori, like Sasuke, was already annoyed with Toby.

Toby sighed. It wasn't his fault he found the blond so attractive. He tapped his fingers on the table idilly. He twitched his foot. He looked around at other people who were staring at him. He sighed and stretched his arms across the table. His arm collided with Itachi's orange juice. Itachi jumped, so the juice fell onto the seat, some of it splashing onto Kisame.

"Toby", Kisame growled.

Toby blushed. "Sorry".

Sasuke had never been happier to reach a school in his life. Toby was driving him crazy. Sadly, Itachi had not stuck Toby in the trunk, no. Toby had been stuck in the back seat with him and Sasori. To make matters worse, poor Deidara had had to sit on Toby's lap on the way back to the school.

"Alright guys", Itachi said, once everyone had recovered from his horrible driving. "I'm going to show Sasuke around the school. You guys go on ahead, I'll meet up with you later".

"Deidara and I have art class together", Toby proclaimed happilly.

"Come on, Love Boy", Sasori mumbled, pulling Toby away from Deidara. He, Deidara, and Sasori soon vanished from sight, leaving Itachi, Kisame, and Sasuke standing in the hall.

"Catch ya later, Itachi!", Kisame called, waving. Then he, too, was gone from view.

"Alright, I'm only going to do this once, so pay attention. If you get lost, it won't be my fault" Itachi took Sasuke's schedual and looked at it.

"Oh, you're a lucky one. You have all of the Legendary Three as teachers this year", Itachi shook his head, wondering how someone could be so unfortunate as to have all three at once.

"The who?", Sasuke asked, wondering why Itachi looked as though someone had died.

"The Legendary Three-they have a reputation for causing loads and loads of trouble here when they were students. After they graduated, they all went on to become teachers. Within two years of them completing school, all three of them had jobs here. And they're just as insane now as they were in highschool". Itachi looked over the schedual again. "You have Kakashi as your homeroom teacher, as well as for math, Gai for phys ed, good luck there, Iruka for History, that's not too bad. Jiraiya's teaching you English-do your book reports on perverted romance novels and you'll be fine- Orochimaru for band-I didn't even know you signed up for band, health with Tsunade and science with Kurenai. Good luck"

Sasuke shrugged. He was sure he could make it through classes, Legendary Three or no. Itachi walked Sasuke around, showing him where each of his classes where, and then where his locker was. After Sasuke had gotten his locker situated, Itachi walked him back to his homeroom class. "Alright, good luck, Sasuke. Be careful-Orochimaru molests cute little boys!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Itachi left him infront of Kakashi's classroom. The jerk was laughing at him. Sasuke tried to comfort himself with the knowledge that Itachi had had all of these teachers before him, and he was still alive, but that didn't help much. He pushed open the door and walked inside.

"SASUKE-KUN!". Sasuke winced as about thirty girls called his name. "SASUKE-KUN! SIT HERE, SASUKE-KUN!".

Sasuke ignored the screaming and scanned the room for someone he knew. He spotted Gaara in the furthest back cornor of the classroom and quickly sat down next to him. Gaara nodded to him, but didn't say anything, so Sasuke didn't say anything to him, either. Instead he watched the door to see if anyone else he knew was present.

"Hey, I know! There's four seats over there", a loud, obnoxious voice stated. Sasuke's heart pounded. No. Please don't let it be...

He turned his head towards the voice and saw Naruto had entered the classroom, along with his friends Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji. Sasuke sighed and practically thumped his head on the desk. Great. Just great. This year was starting to look wonderful, and it hadn't even started yet. Five minutes later, the teacher walked in. Kakashi, if Sasuke's memory of what Itachi told him was correct. He looked like a weirdo.

Kakashi smiled lopsidedly at the class. "Welcome to the first day of the rest of your lives. I'm Kakashi, your homeroom teacher, and for some of you, your math teacher as well. Well, feel free to spend the rest of the class peridod getting to know one another. I have some reading to catch up on". And with that, he sat down at his desk and proceeded to read an orange book. The Icha Icha Paradise series, if Sasuke could see the title correctly. Itachi had gotten in trouble with their parents a few weeks back for borrowing some of the books from Kisame. Great, the home room teacher was a lazy pervert. This was getting better by the moment.

A/N: And I'm done with chapter 1! Yay! Now for...I don't even know how many more chapters. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please leave a review. )


	2. Band Class and Detentions

A/N: I'm happy. This fic is doing better than I thought. Yeah, not many reviews, but I can tell from my hits page that people are reading it. Alot of people are reading it. I don't base the popularity of fics on reviews, but rather, the number of hits the story gets. So thanks to everyone who read this fic, not just the ones who reviewed this fic. I will write and write until I stop getting hits. Thank you all

Summery: It's not easy being a high school freshman. When your elder brother is a senior and the lead singer of Akatsuki, a popular band, you're the obsession of every girl in your grade, and the guy you hated since Kindergarden is starting to look attractive to you, things can get complicated. Add crazy teachers to the mix, and you're in for a wild ride.

Warning: SHONEN-AI CONTENT AHEAD!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I wouldn't need a disclaimer, un...

"Don't you people have your own homes?", Sasuke demanded, annoyed, as he woke up Friday morning to laughter. He had just suffered through the worst four days of his life, and wanted to sleep before he subjected himself to more torture with his psychotic teachers-well, Iruka was nice, and Kurenai seemed OK. "What's so funny, anyway?"

"Oh! Sasuke-Kun! You must see this!", Kisame called. He was howling with laughter. That wasn't anything new-what spiked Sasuke's curiosity was the fact that he could hear Sasori laughing.

Sasuke pushed open the door to Itachi's room, afraid of what he might find-perhaps the group had snuck into Orochimaru's classroom and stolen all of his sheet music. No. Sasori wouldn't laugh at that-he was the responsible one. He would have taken the sheet music back, beating the other three to oblivion in the process.

Sasuke's jaw dropped. Itachi and Deidara were wearing women's kimonos, complete with high-heeled wooden sandles like the ones Tsunade often wore.

Deidara's kimono was a soft pink color, with little birds in blazing silver all over it. His nails were painted a bubble-gum pink color, and his hair fell completely loose around his shoulders. He wore pink lipstick, and what looked like mascara and eyeliner.

His own brother wore a red kimono with a floral print on it. Itachi had painted his nails red and wore his hair up in two buns on his head. Itachi had done his makeup like a geisha might-his face was painted white, and he had bright red lipstick on his mouth. The younger Uchiha's eyes widened.

"It's a promotional for our next concert", Sasori explained when he saw Sasuke's horrified expression. We're calling it "The Softer Side of Life"...so Itachi and Deidara are showing off their softer sides..."

At this, Kisame howled in laughter again. "Showing off their gay sides..."

"Keep it up, Shark Boy, and Deidara and I will make you and Sasori wear the dresses", Itachi said.

"Leave me out of this!", Sasori cried.

Sasuke shook his head. Had Itachi always been so WEIRD? He looked at Deidara, who was being oddly quiet, and blushed a little. Sasuke had always been attracted to blonds, and Deidara's appearance was so feminine, it was easy to forget he was a boy. In a kimono, he made a very beautiful girl. "You do know Toby is going to rape you if he sees you dressed like that, don't you?"

Deidara flashed Sasuke a smile that could have melted the iciest of hearts. "I know it, un. That's why Sasori-danna bought me this, un". Here he held up a small object attached to his key ring-mace.

Sasori blushed almost as red as his hair. "Well...it's just...You know...I didn't want some man attacking him thinking he's a girl..."

Itachi clasped his hands on Sasori's shoulders. "How sweet! You care!" Sasori shoved Itachi's hands off of him. "Careful or we won't protect you...oh, wait. You won't need it. You make an ugly girl".

Itachi rolled his eyes. "I still make a sexier girl than you-Sasuke!"

Sasuke, who had been trying to sneak out the door, stopped short. "Yes?", he asked, scared of what was coming next.

"Who makes a prettier girl?"

"I refuse to even acknowledge that I was asked that question".

"Aww. You're no fun". Itachi smiled deviously at his younger brother. "Want a ride to school?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Nope. My bus driver, like everyone else on the planet, is a much safer driver than you. Besides, I'm ashamed to know you when you're dressed like that". He then stalked out of Itachi's room, wondering how he managed to be the younger brother of such a weirdo.

Sasuke sighed as he trudged to the Band room. Band was certainly the weirdest period in his schedual. This was because both his English teacher, Jiraiya, and the health teacher, Tsunade, had their free periods during that time. The two were often seen in Orochimaru's classroom, usually with something alcholic in their hands. He soon understood why they were known as the Legendary Three-they were legends for still having jobs. Sasuke felt sorry for anyone who had had the misfortune of teaching them when they had been in their youth. No doubt their teachers had drunk themselves to death.

"Hey, Jiraiya. Who am I?", Orochimaru was asking as Sasuke arrived, first as always, to the classroom. His startlingly pale skin was tinged a slight pink, showing that he had been drinking entirely too much. He held his arms aloft, indicating a huge chest.

"Oh, that's easy. You're Tsunade", Jiraiya replied. His face was beet red due to the fact that his complexion was much darker than Orochimaru's.

Tsunade, who was about as red as Jiraiya, went even redder. "Orochimaru!", she gasped. "No fair!"

Jiraiya laughed and rubbed chalk on his face. He was now as white as Itachi had been with the geisha makeup on. "Ok, Tsunade. Who am I?", he asked, Tsunade laughed. "Orochimaru!"

This was how the rest of the class came into see the teachers-Jiraiya with a face full of chalk, and Orochimaru with his hands held out. Most of the class thought this was hilarious, but Sasuke was embarassed for them. Five minutes later, Jiraiya and Tsunade were in the back room, where the instruments were usually held, trying to get ahold of themselves. Orochimaru, still pink in the face, attempted to get the class going. They were going to determine which instruments were best for them to play by breaking into groups and having them test out different instruments.

Sasuke was placed in a group with Naruto, Toby, a girl named Sakura who was in his fan club and annoyed him to no end, and a boy named Kabuto, with whom he wasn't very familiar. He seemed pleasent enough, though maybe that was just because Kabuto didn't talk his ear off about how Sasuke should marry him or jump around hyperly and annoy the whole class. They were stationed at the percussion area first. Naruto beat the crap out of a bell kit with such force Kabuto pulled the mallets from his hands. "No, no", he scolded in a quiet voice. "You'll blow someone's ear drum out like that." He then proceeded to demonstrate the proper way to hit the bells, playing a tune that Sasuke reconized as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

When he finished, Kabuto smiled at them. "There. Now you try", he handed the mallets back to Naruto. Naruto tried to imitate Kabuto's skillful playing, but unfortunately, skillful, Naruto, and music did not go in the same sentance. Kabuto's hands flew to his ears as Naruto masacreed the bell kit. He winced. "Ah...maybe you'll do better with another instrument...", he said, looking doubtful, as he pried the mallets from Naruto's hands. "Here. You try", he said, handing the mallets to Sakura.

Sasuke waited patiently for his turn to try the bell kits. Unfortunately, Toby decided that he was above waiting for his turn to play. Or maybe he simply thought that because he was Itachi's cousin he would be a natural master at music. Whatever the case may be, Toby picked up a pair of drumsticks and struck the poor, unsuspecting drum. He then proceeded to strike with force, trying to tap out the rythem of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. "Not so hard!", Kabuto scolded, rushing over to Toby to try to take the sticks from him. "The material is not as strong as you think. It is pulled tight, but you can still put a hole in it. Stop". Toby's arm flew up, and he smacked Kabuto across the face with the stick. Kabuto pressed his hand to his face and watched helplessly as Toby drove the stick through the drum's face.

"You're in trouble now", Naruto sang

"I'm going to kill you, Toby!", Sasuke hissed as they left Orochimaru's classroom a half an hour later.

"That's if Kabuto-san doesn't kill him first. ", Naruto said. "He looked pretty mad"

"No shit Shirlock. He has every right to be angry. We ALL got detention for after school today thanks to this moron", Sasuke's eyes practically flashed red.

"Hey, I tried to get you all out of it. I can't help it if the pervert finds all of us attractive and wanted the excuse to keep us and molest us". Toby smiled innocently. His eyes widened as Deidara walked by in his pink kimono, his hair gleaming in the light. "Catch you later, sexiest person in this school spotted" He ran off in pursuit of Deidara, who seemed able to run quite quickly in wooden sandles and kimono.

"Uhh...we're here...", Naruto said as they reached the gym a few moments later.

Sasuke sighed. "I see that..."

Shikamaru and Choji then came by then to retrieve Naruto. The boys seemed to remember they were supposed to hate eachother then, because Sasuke walked ahead of Naruto and his friends into the gym, and changed his clothes without another glance at the blond.

When school ended that day Sasuke trudged to the band room to do his detention instead of catching the bus and going home. He was angriest because now he had to go home with Itachi.

"Good. You're all here", Orochimaru said as Sasuke entered. Sasuke was actually the last one to reach someplace, because he really didn't want to sit in here for an hour.

Orochimaru strode to the board and wrote "I am a moron and I destroy school property, please smack me". "You will all copy this sentance 100 times. Get to it".

Sasuke glared at Toby, his eye twitching. Orochimaru could not have picked a more humiliating sentance. He grit his teeth and started to write.

After a little while, Sasuke looked around the classroom. Orochimaru was staring intently at Kabuto. Ah. So Toby wasn't totally correct. Orochimaru wasn't interested in all of their virginity-just Kabuto's. This didn't sit well with Sasuke, because if the poor boy got raped, it would be his faulty in a round-about way, because it was Toby's fault they were here, and Toby was their cousin.

When the hour was finally over, everyone handed what they had to Orochimaru and redied themselves to leave.

"Ah. Kabuto? Can I see you for a minute?", Orochimaru asked. Sasuke, Naruto, and Toby exchanged looks.

_Look at us, jumping to conclusions because of what Itachi told us _Sasuke thought. _Kabuto's writing is probably messy...but he's not keeping Naruto..._

Sakura had already left the classroom, and Naruto and Toby where right behind her. Sasuke hurried out the door, too, eager to start his own weekend. He waited outside the door for a few minutes, just incase he heard screaming, but no screams came. Satisfied that either they were both OK, or one was dead, Sasuke hurried away to go find Itachi and enjoy two glorious days of relaxation before he started another week in hell

A/N: Chapter 2 is done!. The parts with Kabuto and the bell kits/drums are actually based off me trying to instruct someone to play the bell kit in middle-school band. Thankfully he didn't break anything. Drums are very, very hard to break, after all. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed reading it!


	3. Pranks and Insanity

**A/N:** Wow. If half as many people are reading this fic as I am getting hits for, I am doing really, really well. Alot of you seemed to have Naruto's luck with musical instruments. I am terrified. However, if one of you has managed to put the stick through the face of a drum, please let me know. I will be in awe of you forever...Angsty Freedom Fighter, please do draw whatever comes to mind. It makes me happy when my art inspires other people to create their own. Ok, you know the drill. If you're in my Akatsuki, this fic is dedicated to you...and if you're Toby, well...I dunno what I'm gonna do yet, but you're gonna get it.

**Summery:** It's not easy being a high-school Freshman. When your elder brother is a Senior _and_ the lead singer of Akatsuki, a famous band, you're the obsession of every girl in your class, and the guy you hated since Kindergarden is suddenly starting to look attractive to you, things start seeming evenharder. Add crazy teachers to the mix and you're in for a wild ride. And they said high school can be boring...

**Warning**: There **will** be Shonen-Ai content here. If you don't like this, then don't read it. No one is twisting your arm and saying "Look. A SasuXNaru pairing, read now". You are perfectly free to leave, and I ask you do so if such pairings offend you. Flames from people soley because they dislike my pairings will NOT be tolerated. I'm slightly evil, I will make flamers who flame because of my pairings appear to be the biggest assholes on the planet. Don't do it.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto, its characters, or anything of that sort. I also don't own the songs the band is singing. Lyrics have been translated/altered to make sense, and can be from Saint Seiya, WeiB Kruez, or Samurai Troopers, depending what I find appropriate. All I own is this fanfiction, the fanfiction's plot, an Akatsuki cloak, and a slashed Leaf headband. I am a high school Senior myself, so suing me would be kind of pointless. So I'll make you a deal-you don't sue, and I won't cry...

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

The next morning, Akatsuki was once again set up in the living room of the Uchiha household. Sasuke was watching them play, trying not to fall asleep. The amount of work that went into having a band was amazing.

**"In the distant past, in an ancient sky, an angel had appeared. With the Sword of David in his hand, he divided heaven from hell"** Deidara's voice was soft and mild. It didn't contain the low, seductive tone typically heard on male rockers, but he made up for it by having something they didn't-a sweet air of innocence to his voice.

**"Then he smiled at the world as it began to break away. So here I stand, to slash that smile. So here I stand, to say goodbye". **Sasori was low, cool, seductive-sounding. He had, in Sasuke's opinion anyway, the second best voice in the group. If Itachi wasn't the lead singer, Sasori could have easily done it.

Itachi came in then. **"And as I go, I will remember how you looked just sleeping there. In my dreams, I will be able to hold you near, and now I know when I hold you tight and kiss you now, that it's me you wait for, me, and me alone. Far, far away, my love, you wait for me in heaven..."**

Itachi trailed off and held up his hand. He guestured Sasuke over. "Here. Sing this part".

Sasuke glanced at the lyrics and shrugged**. "And I swear, here and now, to return before it fades away, so my love, No No No Don't Cry", **This was supposed to be Kisame's part of the song, but periodically, one of the boys would try to work him in somewhere. Sometimes he'd take over the drums for Kisame, or try Sasori's keyboard or Deidara's guitar. This was because the older boys wanted to get Sasuke into Akatsuki once he was sixteen. They were starting to work with him now, to determine where he should go in the band.

"That was really good, Sasuke-Kun, un", Deidara said, smiling at him.

"Yes. Very, very good", Itachi said. "So good, infact, that I think we should all take a break so we can remember it.

"You just want an excuse to hit up your stash of Cadbury Cream Eggs", Kisame said, rolling his eyes.

Itachi was addicted to Cadbury eggs. At Easter time, he bought tons and tons of the stupid things and stashed them in his room. Usually the eggs were gone by September, but Itachi's birthday was in June, and his friends had chipped in and bought him a whole case for his birthday.

"Maybe", Itachi said innocently. He cracked open a Cadbury egg and let the cream filling ooze over his fingers. He ate the chocolate, and then proceeded to lick the cream off his fingers in such a suggestive way Kisame blushed and turned his face away.

Sasuke was about to tell Itachi off for being such a sick pervert, but the doorbell rang. He went over and opened it.

Toby smiled at Sasuke from the doorstep. He was holding roses. The younger Uchiha blinked. What was with Toby's garrish orange suit? He looked like he'd been digging through Naruto's closet-NOT a good idea. Gaara had had to work on a project with Naruto once, and had come back to school looking like he had had his blood sucked by leeches. Kankuro had explained that Naruto's closet was a toxic waste pit...Gaara had returned home shaking and stating that he was "unclean". Sasuke stared at Toby for a second longer-then closed the door in his face.

"Who was that, Sweetie?", Mrs. Uchiha asked from the kitchen. She was a pretty woman whom Sasuke resembled greatly. While it was true that he and Itachi looked alot alike, Itachi had their father's sharp facial features, particularly the sharpness around the eyes, while Sasuke had their mother's softer features.

"Oh. It was just Toby", Sasuke shrugged.

Mrs. Uchiha sighed. Her nephew was insane, but that didn't give Sasuke the right to leave him standing outside on the doorstep. "Open the door, Sasuke-Chan".

"Do we have to? It's only Toby...he probably thinks he's inside anyway"

Mrs. Uchiha was starting to loose her patience.

"Sasuke, open the door."

Sasuke sighed and went to let Toby in.

Toby let out a high-pitched squeal of "DEIDARA-CHAN!"

"SASORI-DANNA! SAVE ME, UN!", Deidara cried, slipping behind Sasori.

Itachi was being supported by Kisame by an arm around the waist. He was laughing too hard to stand up himself, you see.

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Sasuke sighed as he trudged to P.E. from band. Orochimaru was still angry about the drum. Monday had rolled around quicker than he would have liked. The weekend had been hectic and chaotic. Events that took place included, but where not limited to

1). Sasori getting so annoyed with Toby's constant attempts to get in Deidara's pants that he tied him up with the cords to the amplifier and gagged him with a sofa cushion.

2). Toby somehow managing to escape this and torturing them to twelve verses of The Wheels on the Bus. Sasuke didn't even know there WHERE twelve verses to The Wheels on the Bus!

3). Sasuke and Sasori getting so mad they teamed up and stuffed Toby in a box and delivered him to Kankuro with a note telling the brunette boy to have fun with him.

4). Toby arriving back on the doorstep with a note from Kankuro telling them if they ever decided to send him their garbage again, he would tell Gaara all their darkest fears.

And so on. Sasuke's favorite recollection of the weekend had actually been when Toby had mistaken Itachi's shoes for Sasori's, and filled them with mustard. Itachi had put his foot inside and screamed bloody murder. Which reminded him of

5). Itachi having everyone spend the night and watching horror films. Deidara had freaked out, and Toby had offered to hold him. Toby wound up knocked out on the floor

6). Sasori coming out of the bathroom with black teeth Sunday morning. You see, Toby had replaced his toothpaste with the gel dentists use to stain the teeth when they're doing deep cleanings. It had taken Sasori thirty minutes to scrub the crap off. The whole time Sasuke imagined Lee, one of his classmates, crying like a baby.

The weekend had ended with Toby getting no closer to Deidara. Of course, Sasuke knew Toby was fighting a battle he'd lost forever ago. Deidara adored Sasori, called him his danna. Toby didn't stand a chance with the blond. Sasuke knew it, everyone else knew it, but Toby refused to accept it.

"WELCOME ALL MY YOUTHFUL STUDENTS!", Gai called joyously as they lined up before him. "TODAY IS GOING TO BE THE BELOVED ENDURANCE RUN! OF COURSE, I LIKE TO CALL IT THE ENDURANCE FUN!"

The whole class groaned. Didn't Gai ever run out of energy? Half of them were dead already.

"I'll do my best, Gai-Sensei!", a voice piped up from the crowds. Gai's favorite student, Lee, whom Sasuke also found to be weird, but not as weird as Naruto. Sasuke suspected Gaara had a crush on Lee, as Lee was one of the few students who wasn't afraid of Gaara and actually behaved kindly towards him.

"THAT'S MY BOY! SHOW YOUR CLASSMATES THE POWER OF YOUTH!"

The whole class sweat dropped. This class wouldn't end quick enough.

A/N I'm gonna end this here. Sorry so short, but I have to go, and I really wanted to update, since I made you all wait a week. Fear not, I know exactly where I'm going with this story, and I already have chapter four mapped out in my head. I will make it really long and juicy and you will all enjoy it. I may also stop following Sasuke in the next few chapters. I get bored following the same people, especially since I am NOT much of a Sasuke fan at all...Anyhow. Hope you enjoyed it! Peace all!


	4. Projects, Illness, and AfterSchool Jobs

**A/N: OMG! OMG! OMG! I have over 1000 hits! **(cue the confetti) Thanks to everyone who is reading, and special thanks to the reviewers, particularly Toby-Chan, because you're a really great friend, Angsty Freedom Fighter for her beautiful fanarts (I love you!), and Auphanim for helping me be a better writer. :) I hope this story will continue to grow in its popularity. As long as people read it, I will continue to write it!

Chakliux-to answer your question, yes, they are lyrics from Piece of Heaven. I am absolutely addicted to that song :)

**Summery:** It's not easy being a high-school Freshman. When your elder brother is a Senior _and_ the lead singer of Akatsuki, a famous band, you're the obsession of every girl in your class, and the guy you hated since Kindergarden is suddenly starting to look attractive to you, things start seeming even harder. Add crazy teachers to the mix and you're in for a wild ride. And they said high school can be boring...

**Warning**: There **will** be Shonen-Ai content here. If you don't like this, then don't read it. No one is twisting your arm and saying "Look. A SasuXNaru pairing, read now". You are perfectly free to leave, and I ask you do so if such pairings offend you. Flames from people soley because they dislike my pairings will NOT be tolerated. I'm slightly evil, I will make flamers who flame because of my pairings appear to be the biggest assholes on the planet. Don't do it.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto, its characters, or anything of that sort. I also don't own the songs the band is singing. Lyrics have been translated/altered to make sense, and can be from Saint Seiya, WeiB Kruez, or Samurai Troopers, depending what I find appropriate. All I own is this fanfiction, the fanfiction's plot, an Akatsuki cloak, and a slashed Leaf headband. I am a high school Senior myself, so suing me would be kind of pointless. So I'll make you a deal-you don't sue, and I won't cry...

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Iruka was a very, very evil man. There was no other way to put it. He...he had to do a report with Sasuke Uchiha? Him? Naruto Uzumaki? No. No, no, no. Wasn't happening. He didn't care if he got an "F" on the project and Jiraiya yelled at him for bad grades...he was NOT going to spend hours apon hours in the same room as Sasuke looking up information on the Boston Tea Party.

He scanned the room for Mr.-Holier-Than-Thou. Said Holier-Than-Thou was nochalantly taking notes, as though none of this bothered him.

Naruto grew angrier at the sight of Sasuke just sitting there, calmly taking notes. He thought he was so cool, so pretty and perfect...

...Wait? Did he just say he thought Sasuke was pretty?

He must be sick in the head. He started punching himself on the head.

_Unbelieveable! Disgusting!_ he thought desprately.

"Naruto. Did you hear a word I said?", Iruka's voice cut through his thoughts. He sounded irritated and the rest of the class laughed.

"Yes, Iruka-Sensei. Sasuke and I will be working on a project on the Boston Tea Party together", Naruto sighed.

Iruka sighed. "Naruto, I mentioned the project groups twenty minutes ago. I am talking about taxes on goods right now."

'Oh! I knew that!", Naruto said cheerilly

Iruka decided not to press the issue any further and went back to teaching his lesson. It was times like these where he wondered why he became a teacher in the first place.

Naruto went back to his own thoughts about how unfair the project was.

The bell finally rang, and he hastened to pack his things up and get out of the classroom.

He was in such a rush, he scrambled from his chair and landed flat on his face. He looked up to see Sasuke standing over him, that irritating smirk on his face.

"Look", Sasuke said, making no attempt to help Naruto up. "It's obvious you need a good grade on this project".

Naruto's blood boiled. Now Sasuke was calling him stupid. Ok, in all honesty and fairness, that was probably true, but _Sasuke_ of all people had no right to call him that...

...even if he did have the highest GPA in the class...

Damn the Sasuke-Bastard!

"So we'll make this easy. You can get on my bus this afternoon and come back to my house to start working on the project. I'll have my brother take you home afterwards".

Naruto gaped, open-mouthed, as Sasuke walked away. Didn't he have a say in this? Apparently he didn't, because the dark-haired boy had disappeared from view, no doubt heading to their English lesson.

"DAMN YOU, SASUKE-BASTARD!", Naruto screamed outloud.

Iruka was still in the classroom.

Naruto recieved detention on Friday for improper language.

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Gaara sighed as the bell rang, signaling the end of class. He didn't want to do this stupid project. Intolerable Acts, or whatever it was they were doing.

"Gaara! Over here!". Gaara looked up as a boy dressed in green came running up to him. Rock Lee. At least he seemed excited.

Gaara didn't say anything as Lee reached him. He just nodded at the other boy to acknowledge him.

"So, where do you want to go? I was thinking the library, but the bookstore might work, too...or we could go back to my house and look stuff up on my computer...", Lee continued to babel on and on.

Gaara held up his hand, resisting the urge to smile. Lee had so much energy.

"Why don't we just go to the library?", he suggested

Gaara blinked-Lee had already dashed off. And he was fast as hell!

He walked at a leisurely pace. Sooner or later the energetic youth would realize he wasn't with him and would slow down.

Or so Gaara hoped.

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Itachi breezed into Anna's Cafe shortly after three to start his shift. He'd had a part-time job there for a little over a year, having been hired shortly after his sixteenth birthday. The cafe was a small hole-in-the wall place, done up in a girly fashion. The interior was painted white, with lacy pink curtains, a pink clock on the wall, and many plants and flowers. Itachi slumped against the counter to wait for customers. By four o'clock, the place would be bustling with high-school girls, chatting and giggling, flirting with Itachi, and wondering why he wasn't flirting back.

"Itachi-Kun!", a voice sang. A young woman with long brown hair and bright blue eyes smiled at Itachi as she smoothed down her long blue skirt. "Why aren't you wearing your apron, Itachi-Kun?". This was Anna, the owner of the coffee shop.

"Because it is frilly and pink?", Itachi asked.

Anna laughed. "We have a new guy, Itachi-Kun. Might I ask you to wear your apron and set a good example?"

Itachi pulled on the apron-it really didn't bother him. He was comfortable enough in his masculinity not to be bothered by it. Besides, he went to school in a dress. A frilly apron was nothing.

Anna beamed. "Come out, Kisame-Kun. Don't drag your feet..." she shook her head at Itachi. "Poor thing seems so shy".

Itachi quickly came to the conclusion Anna couldn't have ment his Kisame, because his Kisame was a long way off from "shy".

Sure enough Kisame came out then, wearing the coffee shop guy's uniform-a starched white shirt, khaki pants, and the apron. His blue-gray cheeks were stained a pink that rivaled the aprons. Itachi almost laughed at him.

"Cheer up, SharkBoy, you'll get used to it", Itachi said playfully.

Anna's smile grew. "You know each other?"

"Since Kindergarden".

"Perfect! You can teach him the basics, Itachi-Kun!".

"Huh...Anna, wait..."

Too late, the brunette woman was out the door, her long braided hair flying behind her.

Itachi sighed and looked at Kisame. "Looks like it's just you and me..."

"And the fifty girls screaming your name and begging you to father their children", Kisame replied

Itachi thunked his head on the counter. This was going to be a long day.

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His danna was home ill today, all alone, to wallow in his feverish misery-well, that certainly wouldn't do. No one should be alone when they weren't feeling well. Deidara chuckled as he pulled on his denim jacket, his eyes on his desk. Sasori's homework was bound neatly with a paperclip, lying next to a basket that contained gingerale, graham crackers, chicken broth, a bottle of bismuth, bismuth tablets to take to school with him once he was well enough to return, and other supplies that would help ease the discomfort associated with having the stomach flu, including a snuggly teddy bear. Deidara himself had had the bug earlier in the week and knew how miserable Sasori probably was. He grabbed the basket and Sasori's homework, scribbled a note to his mother to let her know that he would be at Sasori's house, and hurried out the door.

As luck (or lack there of) would have it, Toby happened to be out and about at the same time Deidara was.

"Deidara-Chan!"

Deidara sighed as Toby came running up to him. He couldn't very well do anything now unless he wanted to make a huge scene in public. He smiled at Toby, but at the same time, made an attempt to walk past him.

"Hey, what'cha got there?" Toby asked.

"Sasori-danna is sick, un", Deidara replied.

"Ah. I see." Toby tried not to look as though Deidara's innocent comment had hurt him. He knew if he was the one who was ill, Deidara wouldn't go through so much trouble.

"Ummm...I'll...just be going now, un." Deidara looked very uncomfortable.

In his haste to get away, the blond tripped. He let out a cry as he started to fall, but he was caught around the waist by Toby.

"Ah. Thanks, un"

Toby was about to release Deidara when he heard someone call out "Look! That boy is being abusive towards that girl!"

Toby let go really quickly and scrambled away. Deidara shook his head-everyone and their grandmother had confused him for a girl at sometime. Poor Toby, though. He looked mortified.

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"...In May of 1773 Parliament concocted a clever plan. They gave the struggling East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea to America. Additionally, Parliament reduced the duty the colonies would have to pay for the imported tea. The Americans would now get their tea at a cheaper price than ever before...Naruto!" Sasuke clenched his teeth-the moron had fallen asleep! "Wake up!"

"Ugghh...no. I think I had enough ramen, Jiraiya-San"

Sasuke's temple twitched. Jiraiya! How dare he call him by the name of his perverted caretaker! Ok, so he was asleep, but still...

"Wake up now!" the dark-haired boy ordered, shaking the light-haired one's shoulder. "Wake up, you idiot! Our project's not that boring!"

Naruto grabbed Sasuke and pulled him against him. "Don't be like that, Mr. Snuggles."

Sasuke tried to pull himself up. Damn blond. He'd better not be playing around. He'd just managed to get loose when Naruto grabbed him back again. They toppled over. Sasuke landed on top of Naruto, and their lips met briefly-which, besides being utterly and completely nauseating, would not have been that big a deal-except the blond opened his eyes at that exact moment.

"Gyahh!", Naruto cried "You took advantage of me!"

"Don't be stupid", Sasuke snapped "Why would I want to take advantage of you? You grabbed me"

"Ew! I'm tainted! I grabbed you!", Naruto wailed "Oh, I hope being an asshole isn't contagious!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I hope your stupidity doesn't rub off on me."

Naruto's blue eyes shot open. "I want to go home now. You're so mean!"

"You called me an asshole!"

"Well, if the shoe fits..."

Sasuke grit his teeth and looked at the clock. Itachi wouldn't get off work until 7:30, which ment he probably wouldn't get home until eight. It was six now...

...The night would never end...

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"My God, Lee. How on Earth could you have gotten drunk off rum raisen ice cream?" Gaara asked. This was the most amazing phenominum the redhead had ever witnessed. It was like the slightly older boy had no tolerance to alcohol at all.

Lee muttered something unintelligable. Gaara sighed. They'd been doing really well together, especially for two people who made fairly average grades. That's when Lee had suggested they take a break and get some ice cream. Gaara had been in one of his rare good moods, and had suggested they buy a pint to take back to Lee's house, that way they could have their snack and work at the same time. He'd even offered to pay for the ice cream. What he didn't know at the time was that he was causing the appocolypse by buying rum raisen ice cream. He was only glad they'd brought the ice cream back and weren't out in public somewhere.Gaara looked at his watch. "You still alive, Lee?"

No response.

"Lee?" Gaara stood up and walked out of Lee's room, into the hallway. He could just imagine this whole thing being taped for Candid Camera-the situation was far too ackward for it not to be an act one someone's part. Who the hell really got drunk off of ice cream?

He walked a little further, into the kitchen. The door to the fridge was open, Lee passed out just infront of it. An open jug of water was in Lee's hands, the icy cold liquid spreading across the floor and soaking into the youth's clothes.Gaara jerked him out of the puddle of water and shut the water jug and the fridge. He dragged him none-too-gently back to his room and practically tossed him on the bed. Gaara sighed. This was his fault, he couldn't leave until Lee woke up. If it had been anyone else, even his own brother, Kankuro, he could have left in a heartbeat, with no guilt at all. This wasn't the case with Lee, though. Lee had always been so nice to him-the only student who was nice to him. So instead of leaving, Gaara set to work cleaning up the mess.

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Crying. Someone was crying. Toby wasn't someone to just walk away from that, either. Especially not when the crying person was a pretty girl.

"What's the matter?" Toby asked, taking a seat on the bench beside the girl.

The girl lifted her head. Toby reconigzed her-it was Sakura from their band class.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it.", she said.

"Oh. I bet it's not "nothing".", Toby replied. If he remembered clearly, Sakura had a mad crush on Sasuke. "Why do you let him get to you like this? If he causes you this much pain, obviously he's not worth it."

"What would you know about it?" Sakura asked, her green eyes narrowing into angry slits.

"More than you know." Toby's thoughts drifted to Deidara. He was different than Sasuke, though. The blond had never been out-right rude to Toby while Sasuke seemed to make a point of hurting Sakura's feelings every opportunity he got, mocking her and calling her annoying.

Sakura sighed. "Is some girl hell-bent on breaking your heart?"

"Eh. Something like that." Toby smiled.

Sakura glanced at him. It took her a moment to figure out what he was talking about. Once the realization struck that Toby was gay, she blushed the color of a cherry blossom. Toby laughed.

"Maybe I should just get over him", Toby murmured once they'd stopped laughing. "He has never mentioned a boyfriend outright, but when you call someone your danna..."

"It means you're dating them", Sakura finished. She smiled gently at Toby. "But you know just as well as I do how hard it is to get over someone you like."

Toby leaned back against the bench. "Listen to us. We sound pitiful." His stomach growled just then. "Come on. Let's get dinner-my treat."

"Oh. Thank you, but I-"

"I won't take no for an answer.", Toby replied and pulled a laughing Sakura off the bench.

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"No, Deidara. You can't be serious.", Sasori groaned. Was Deidara really a boy? He was so girly!

Deidara pouted. "He'll make you feel better, un! Sometimes it's nice to have things to cling to. Especially when you're sick, un."

Sasori's face remained devoid of emotion as he fixed his lovely reddish-brown orbs on the blond. Why was he so cute?

"I don't want to sleep with a stuffed bear, Deidara." He turned his head to the side to cough.

"Danna, you didn't eat your soup, un."

"My stomach feels like it is being ripped open. I don't want to eat."

"You don't eat enough, un."

Sasori sighed and leaned back against his pillows. He wasn't in the mood to argue with Deidara.

Deidara's gaze dropped to the floor for a moment. He looked back up. "Sasori-danna, un...I...worry about you, un. I don't like it when you're sick, un."

Sasori was surprised to see a couple of tears splash onto the front of Deidara's bizzare denim jacket. "I know you do..." he replied, for really, he had no idea what else to say. He racked his brain to figure out something to cheer the blond up. Something that would show him that he did, infact, appreciate what he was doing for him.

"Deidara", he said slowly. "Tell you what...How about as soon as I'm feeling better I take you to the fair?"

Deidara's eyes lit up. "You mean it, un?"

Sasori almost laughed. "Yes, yes I do."

"That'd be great, un!"

Deidara's excited cry fell to deaf ears, however. Sasori had fallen asleep, the faintest of smilesd playing on his lips.

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"Unbelieveable...Really, Kisame...we have to get this mess cleaned up before Anna gets back!" Itachi's eyes were locked on the cappachino that had spewed everywhere.

"I TOLD you I couldn't use that damn machine!" Kisame shot back hotly. He was not going to let Itachi put all the blame on him.

"Geeze, I didn't know it was that hard to use." Itachi rolled his eyes and sloshed through the sticky mess to put the "CLOSED" sign on the door.

Kisame grabbed a mop and started to mop up the mess on the floor. This had to be the most ackward day of work EVER.

Itachi sighed and grabbed a sponge to get the mess off the walls and counter. He couldn't believe Kisame had messed up making cappachino.

Finally he finished up cleaning the counters and walls. It had taken the better part of an hour. Itachi tossed the spong in the sink and leaned up against the counter. He was officially exhausted.

Kisame set the mop up against the wall a short time later. He walked over to Itachi and leaned next to him. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright", Itachi murmured.

Kisame leaned in closer to Itachi, until their lips were touching. Nothing like a nice kiss to make up for a silly arguement.

"Aha! So you ARE dating!" The girl's voice was cheerful.

Itachi and Kisame broke apart. Kisame blushed, but Itachi looked thoroughly unruffled.

This was one of those times when the taller admired the smaller's ability to remain cool.

"Temari. We're closed. Didn't you see the sign?"

Temari laughed. "I did. But our uncle asked me to look for Gaara. He hasn't come home yet."

"Oh. Gaara's probably still with Lee." Itachi pushed a stray lock of hair from his eyes.

"Lee?"

"Yeah. Some sort of group project. I only know about this because I'm supposed to take Sasuke's partner home when I get back."

"Ah. I see. Well, I'll go tell him that Gaara's doing homework. Thanks guys...and for future referance, a coffee shop is not the best of places for making out." Temari winked at them and left.

"Bitch.", Itachi muttered as Temari disappeared out the door, but he was smiling.

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Unknown to Itachi and Kisame, a gray-eyed figure was watching them intently. Their purpose? To get as much information on the duo as they possibly could.

"My eyes are on you, Akatsuki", the figure murmured. "Watch out"

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A/N: There. I hope this more than made up for the crappiness of Chapter 3. LOL. I am very please with this chapter, and I even ended it with a little teaser. This fic will remain humorous, but as you can see, an actual plot is developing, This story's going to get less fluffy. Because too much fluff makes you sick. Hope you enjoyed!


	5. The First Death

**A/N:** My my my. Five chapters already. I remember when I wrote the 1st chapter for this. I didn't think I'd make it to the action parts of the fic, and yet, here I am, typing them up. I'm happy that this is doing better than I thought, even if I did loose a few readers due to shounen-ai pairings. Not like I care, if they were too dumb to read the warnings I've posted since chapter 1, not my problem. Anyhow, thank you to the readers and reviewers who give me the satisfaction of knowing I'm not writing for nothing. I love you all! -Gives her readers cookies and the reviewers ice cream sundaes-. Enjoy!

**Warning:** (Am I typing a warning for nothing?) There **WILL** be Shounen-Ai here! Don't like, don't read. But don't review and tell me you don't like it, because I will throw my warnings back in your face. No one is twisting your arm saying "Look! Look! Itachi and Kisame, aren't they cute, read now!". If shounen-ai offends you, I'd rather you just hit the back browser and not read than leave infuriating reviews that ruin the story not just for me, but for the readers. Don't do it. Just hit the back button and leave. Believe me, I'll never know.

**Disclaimer**: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't need a disclaimer. I don't own it...believe me, if I did, Sasuke'd of had some sense beat in him a long time ago, and Orochimaru and the Akatsuki would reign supreme...-cough-. And that's why I don't own Naruto...

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Sasori tugged at his sweatshirt Sunday night, hoping he looked alright. It was one of his favorites, a gift he had received from Itachi for his birthday. Dark blue, with a red scorpion on the back, it was warm, comfortable, and a good color on him. Tonight was his first date with Deidara. To ease the tension, Kisame and Itachi, who had been going out together for a couple of months, agreed to meet them at the fair where they could double-date together. However, Sasori still faced the task of picking up the blond and driving him to the fair grounds, then he had the task of taking him home when all was said and done. Add the fact that he still didn't feel completely up to speed to the mix, and you had one nervous, anxious, pale-skinned young man on your hands.

_Get a grip, Sasori_ he scolded himself. _It's only Deidara. It's not like he's going to attack you if you're two minutes late or your shoe's untied_

"Bye, mom!", he called, knowing she would ignore him. She wasn't taking the fact that her son was dating one of his male best friends very well. Sasori hoped she would get over it before the next time Deidara came over, especially since the blond's mother was taking it in stride, proclaiming that she loved Sasori and was happy that her son chose to date him if he was going to date guys.

As expected, he received no answer. The redhead shrugged his shoulders. It was no biggie. He was honestly closer with his grandmother, Chiyo, than he was with his parents. He'd call Chiyo tomorrow after school and tell her how his date went. She'd been happy for him when he'd told her about his date, and couldn't have cared less about the gender of the person. After all, Sasori hadn't been aiming to fall for a boy, let alone his best friend. It'd just sort of happened.

Fifteen minutes later, Sasori was at Deidara's house, and his heart was pumping so fast he was sure it would beat right out of his chest. (A/N: Yeah. He's not a puppet, he's a breathing, normal human being) He'd brought flowers, but honestly, he wasn't sure if he should have. Do boys bring other boys flowers? Deidara's mother answered the door, and Sasori smiled. He could hear Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata playing lightly in the background.

"Isn't the date supposed to wait anxiously by the door, pace around, and then squeal "he's here" while rushing forward to pull him inside?", Sasori asked teasingly, because really, he had no idea how else to get Deidara's attention. The blond was completely entranced by the music.

"Sasori-Danna." Deidara smiled at him brightly. He was wearing a pink tank top with black pants. A black scarf hung around his neck, he had on pink elbow-length gloves, black bands on his upper arms with little pink chicks on them, and a hat that matched the arm bands.

Sasori smiled and handed him the flowers. "I have no idea if I'm supposed to give you flowers or not..."

Deidara grinned mischievously and accepted the flowers. "Thank you, un." He handed them to his mother.

Deidara's mother laughed and held up her camera. "Just a few photos before you two leave..."

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"Sasuke, you bastard, I'm bored. This is boring. Let's do something else! Go somewhere fun!"

Sasuke thunked his head against his desk. Like he didn't have better things to do with his Sunday night than sit around with a hyperactive moron and listen to said moron complain.

"Sasuke doesn't understand the meaning of the word fun", Itachi told Naruto as he breezed past Sasuke's room on the way to his own.

"Woah! How come you're not cool-looking like him?", Naruto asked Sasuke.

"I'M not getting ready for a date because I'M stuck here with YOU working on this project-which, I might add, could have been done already if you hadn't spilled ramen on the first draft!"

Itachi poked his head into Sasuke's room. He did, in fact, look "cool" as Naruto proclaimed. Itachi was wearing his hair loose and had on a pair of dark denim jeans, fashionably ripped at the knee, a long white T-shirt, and a red leather jacket. Fingerless red gloves and a pair of black boots pulled Itachi's outfit together.

"Yell a little louder, I think there are some deaf monks who didn't hear you yet"

"Why don't you just leave already?", Sasuke muttered.

"Well...I WAS going to see if you and your little friend wanted to go to the fair with us, but since you're so..." Itachi trailed off as Naruto grabbed his arm.

"YES! TAKE US WITH YOU!"

Sasuke sighed. "Moron. We have a lot of work to do. The paper is due Thursday..." he trailed off. Naruto wasn't listening. He was hell-bent on going to the fair with his brother.

"Why are you doing this?", Sasuke hissed at Itachi

Itachi smiled. "What's the matter, Sasuke? I thought you liked blonds..."

"Blond GIRLS, Itachi. Girls."

"Ah, well. You have a date for tonight with a cute blond guy. Might as well make the best of it." Itachi ruffled his younger brother's hair and left the room to call Kisame and make sure he was ready to go.

The paler boy scowled after his older brother and looked at his "date".

The blond was dancing around the room excitedly. If he'd heard Itachi's teasing that this was a date between him and Sasuke, he certainly didn't show it.

Sasuke shuddered-what if Naruto HAD heard Itachi and thought it was a good idea...

The dark-haired boy then proceeded to slap himself for such a thought.

"Hey. Moron. You might want to take this with you after scarfing down so much ramen" Sasuke tossed a plastic bag to Naruto. "Throw up in here"

"But, Sasuke Bastard, why would I need to throw up?"

_The poor fool has no idea _Sasuke realized. The last time Itachi was supposed to take Naruto home, his mother had gotten home before Itachi and had taken him home instead. Sasuke smirked, realizing this would prove amusing.

Ten minutes later, the younger boys were in the backseat of Itachi's car, heading to pick up Kisame.

Naruto suddenly understood why Sasuke had given him the vomit bag.

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Kabuto winced as he walked past the bathroom door. It almost sounded like someone was crying-he frowned. There weren't many options on who could be crying as the only people who lived in the house where himself, Orochimaru, and another kid named Kimimaro. The two boys had been orphaned when they were younger and Orochimaru had taken them in. Even though he and Kimimaro weren't brothers, they could almost pass as such. In any case, they had a weird, disjointed family unit going on here.

"Are you alright in there?", Kabuto called, knocking on the door.

He got no response.

Kabuto sighed and pushed the door open.

"Wh-what are you doing?", he gasped, running over and pulling a pair of scissors from Kimimaro's hands. "Your hair."

Kimimaro had been attempting to cut his hair himself. "Are you sick again?", Kabuto questioned. He wasn't sure what Kimimaro's illness would have to do with the younger boy suddenly deciding he was a barber, but something was up.

Kimimaro turned to look at Kabuto. His green eyes were dull, blood was on his lip. When he pulled away from the sink, Kabuto could see the fresh blood in it. He sighed.

"Didn't I tell you to come get me before you got to this point?", Kabuto asked, rubbing his temples. His parents had been wonderful doctors, and had passed their medical knowledge on to their son before they died. He'd been helping Kimimaro deal with his mysterious illness.

Kimimaro turned on the water and rinsed the blood from his mouth and washed it away from the porcelain surface. "I didn't think you were here."

"And you were cutting your hair because..."

"I don't know. I spend so much time coughing up blood or throwing up, I thought a short cut might make it easier to deal with."

Kabuto put his hand to his forehead. He was being punished for something he did in a past life, he knew he had to be. "We have hair bands for that", he said, shaking his own loosely

tied hair.

"I know.", Kimimaro sighed. Kabuto wasn't sick all the time. He had no idea what he was going through. "Think there's any hope of salvaging it?" he guestered towards his hair.

"Sit down. I'll see what I can do.", Kabuto replied. The back had been hacked, but the front was untouched.

It took him the better part of an hour, but finally he'd fixed Kimimaro's hair into an acceptable style. The front part now hung about an inch past his shoulders, the back cut just a little above.

"That's the best I could do", he said. "It doesn't look too bad".

The younger boy gazed into the mirror. No. The haircut wasn't bad... it was horrible. He looked much younger than the fifteen years old he was supposed to be. He sighed-he'd done this to himself.

"Thanks", he murmured, heading towards the room the boys shared. "I'm going to go lie down for a while. Maybe even go to bed for the evening."

Kabuto nodded. "I'm heading out to get a coffee. I'll check up on you when I get back."

Kimimaro blinked. "Why do you want coffee at seven at night?"

"I have a lot of homework to do that I should have done Friday night", Kabuto replied, smiling sweetly.

Kimimaro rolled his eyes. That smile only worked so much.

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"Ohh...Look!", Deidara cried, pulling Sasori's hand, laughing. "A ferris wheel, un. And the flying swings, un! And, and...". His blue eyes widened. "Danna! Look, un! Rock and Roll, un!"

Sasori laughed and glanced back at the rest of his group-Itachi, Kisame, Sasuke, and a new addition named Naruto. Itachi looked alright, but the other three looked ready to be sick.

"Let's go on the Rock and Roll", Sasori said evilly. He suddenly had the feeling that three people wanted to kill him. It didn't matter, because Deidara shrieked with laughter and pulled Sasori towards the ride so fast his hat nearly fell off his head.

Begrudgingly the other boys followed behind them.

Sasuke thought the Rock and Roll would be like Itachi rolling the car over many times.

Naruto suddenly wished he was back at the Uchiha house writing the paper.

And Kisame was wondering, as he did nearly every day, how he'd gotten such an insane boyfriend.

Itachi smirked. He was the cause of all of this.

They'd barely walked five paces before Naruto spotted a ramen stand and said he wanted some.

"How can you want to eat?", Sasuke and Kisame called, both looking appalled.

"It wasn't that bad", Naruto replied, and ran to get some ramen.

After Naruto finished his ramen the boys played some games. Sasori won a gigantic stuffed tiger for Deidara playing the ring toss, while Kisame managed to win a large stuffed panda for Itachi by hitting the high score on the strength machine. Naruto and Sasuke won smaller toys for each other playing the darts and shooting games.

After they grew bored of the games, they decided to ride the flying swings and ferris wheel. The flying swings left them all with a weightless feeling.

"That was great!", Naruto declared as they hopped off the swings. "It felt just like flying!"

Deidara fell asleep on the ferris wheel. _He's so cute when he's sleeping _Sasori mussed

Even though he was asleep, Deidara grabbed onto Sasori much the way a child would unconsciously grab onto a teddy bear. Sasori blushed and looked at the blond slumped against his shoulder. He wanted to kiss him, but was afraid he'd wake him up. Their seat stopped at the top. Sasori took in the sight in awe, wishing Deidara was awake to enjoy it with him

After their car had been in the air for a few seconds, he realized that they probably wouldn't be going anywhere soon. Sasori leaned over and planted a kiss on Deidara's cheek. His blue eyes snapped open. "Oh, Danna, un." Deidara yawned. "I'm sorry, un. I didn't mean to go to sleep, un." He balled one of his hands into a fist and rubbed at his left eye. "It's OK. Look, Deidara. Isn't it beautiful?". "The stars in the sky are much more attractive than the lights, un", Deidara said, pointing up. He snuggled against Sasori and rested his head on his shoulder again. "The lights will be around forever, un. The stars go away in the morning, un." Sasori smiled. "Lights burn out, Deidara", he replied. Deidara didn't get a chance to reply because the ride started moving again

"Ah! It's moving!" Naruto's shout was heard by many. He grabbed onto Sasuke without realizing it. "No, Moron! It's supposed to move. That's the only way for us to get down.", Sasuke replied, wondering how anyone could be so stupid. Naruto blushed and quickly let go of Sasuke. "Sorry", he apologized, rubbing the back of his head. Sasuke sighed and shook his head. He could see his brother kissing Kisame in the car below theirs. Well, kissing was a kind word. Their arms were intertwined and they were pressed so close together it would have been impossible to tell who was who if Kisame didn't have blue skin. Just what he wanted to see. Geeze. Didn't they have any restraint?

When the ride finally ended and everyone got off they decided it was time to head home. It was getting very late, after all. They walked towards the exit as a group, passing Toby along the way. He was with a pretty girl who wore her pink hair in a messy ponytail. The pair were laughing as they walked past. Toby gave his cousins a cheerful wave and guided the girl past them, a smile on his face.

"Hey, wasn't that Sakura-Chan?", Naruto asked

Deidara's face broke into a smile. "I'm happy for Toby, un."

Sasuke scoffed. "Yeah. Let's see how long she survives with him."

"Now, Sasuke. They looked very happy together.", Itachi said, hiding a smile.

Itachi, Kisame, Sasuke, and Naruto bid good night to Sasori and Deidara and the groups went their separate ways.

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Sasori dragged himself to school the next day feeling like crap. He'd of liked nothing better than to stay home and remain in bed, but he couldn't after he missed two days of school last week. He was thirty minutes late as it was-it was completely worth it, though, as he remembered the way Deidara's blue eyes had sparkled when they were at the fair, how warm the blond was when he fell asleep on his shoulder, how sweet his lips has tasted when he'd taken him home. Yes. Every bit of fatigue was worth it. He would slip unnoticed to first period-not like anyone would care. He was an honors student and he was almost never late or absent. Sasori parked his car and got out. Something wasn't right. The entire twelfth grade class was out on the track, milling around like lost cattle. He walked towards the commotion, hoping to find his friends quickly so he could learn what was going on.

"SASORI!" The redhead blinked as Deidara all but threw himself into his arms. This honestly wasn't anything new-the blond was very affectionate. The thing that was unusual was the look of fear in Deidara's blue eyes. "Oh, thank goodness, un. I was so worried, un..." Deidara murmured, pressing his face against Sasori's shoulder.

"What's going on?", Sasori asked. Things were getting weirder and weirder by the moment.

"They found a dead body in Ibiki-Sensei's classroom this morning", Itachi explained, coming up to Sasori and Deidara, Kisame right behind him. "Idiot over here couldn't find you this morning and freaked out."

"So far, Sasori, you're the only one who isn't a suspect", Kisame added. "Bad timing. You should have just stayed home."

Sasori patted Deidara's shoulder, looking rather dazed. "Dead? Who's dead? A student?"

"They haven't told us anything yet. Anko-Sensei came into homeroom this morning and ushered everyone out onto the track. We've been here since." Kisame shrugged. "I guess they plan on questioning all of us before they tell us anything."

"How can they be sure it was a 12th grader?", Sasori asked. "Maybe Ibiki-Sensei went crazy and killed the person himself and then left the body in his classroom."

"Nah. I don't think so. Ibiki-Sensei isn't a killer. Orochimaru's pretty weird, though. He seems like the type who would kill people and stash their bodies in other people's classrooms"

Kisame stopped talking as Anko came up to them. Her face was very grave, and all her usual bounciness was gone. It was scary to see her so serious.

"Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki. Can we see you two for a moment?", she asked.

Deidara gave a horrified gasp and held onto Sasori tighter. Sasori patted Deidara's shoulder. "What do you need them for?"

"It's OK. Come on, Kisame", Itachi said calmly. If he felt any fear at all, his face certainly didn't show it. This was one thing about him that annoyed his band members to no end-no matter what happened, he always remained cool.

Kisame followed him, though he was nervous. What did she want with them?

"THEY'RE GOING TO BE ARRESTED, UN!", the hysterical Deidara cried, pressing his face against Sasori's shoulder again.

Sasori sighed. "They're not going to be arrested." He then proceeded to glare at all the students who were staring at them until they averted their gazes elsewhere.

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Anko led Kisame and Itachi to Ibiki's classroom. Once they were outside, she looked at the two teenagers. "I must warn you. This may be difficult on you two. Especially you, Uchiha-Kun".

Even though Itachi's face showed no signs of worry, the young man's heart pounded in his chest so hard he was sure the others must hear it and spot through his calm facade. What if it was Sasuke lying dead in Ibiki's classroom? Would he be able to handle that? Kisame seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because he stepped in front of Itachi then, blocking his view of the room.

Kisame gasped as the door swung open. Itachi pushed past Kisame and felt relief rush over him.

"Ah. You worked for her, didn't you?", Sarutobi, the principal, asked gently. He was a kind old man whom the students liked dearly.

Itachi nodded. "We did", he said, taking in the sight of Anna's broken body slumped in a chair in Ibiki's room and feeling only relief that it wasn't Sasuke in her place.

Kisame was amazed at how calm Itachi was about the whole ordeal.

Sarutobi sighed. "I was afraid of that..."

"You-you don't think we did it, do you?", Kisame asked nervously. He glanced over at Itachi, who looked a little pale, but otherwise unfazed.

"No. I don't think you boys did it-but you're the only ones with any motive to kill her at all..."

"What "motive" did we have?", Kisame snapped. "We worked for her. That's all!"

"Kisame", Itachi said, calmly putting his hand on Kisame's shoulder. He nodded at Sarutobi. "What happens now?", he asked.

"I'm sorry, boys", Sarutobi said, and he truthfully looked pained. "I'll have to let the police question you."

Itachi nodded.

Kisame sighed. This was going to be one of those weeks.

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A/N: Sorry for the delay, I was having difficulty with Please kindly check out my other fic, He Didn't Give Up. The fair scene came from a fic I wrote forever ago. I was too lazy to re-write it. Hope you enjoyed it. )


	6. A Stroke of Bad Luck

A/N: And here it is, chapter 6! Yeah! I'm not even going to waste time with warnings and disclaimers. Just read and enjoy!

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The questioning took forever-the cops were relentless. No, he wasn't anywhere near the coffee shop. Yes, Kisame had been with him last night. No, he didn't see what their relationship had to do with anything. Yes, they had witnesses. Yes, he supposed the words of Sasuke, Sasori, and Deidara could be considered biased. No, they did not threaten Naruto to cover for them. No, they had no reason to want Anna dead. Finally they seemed satisfied and let him go. Itachi had never felt so annoyed in his life as he did when he was leaving Tsunade's classroom. Kisame, who was leaving Asuma's class at the same time, looked tense. His face twisted into an unconvincing smile as Itachi walked to him.

"Welcome to our first day as suspected criminals", Kisame said dryly.

"If they had kept me a moment longer I would have become a real criminal", Itachi muttered darkly.

Kisame blinked as Anko walked Kabuto past them to be questioned. "This is getting ridiculous."

"I'll bet his crime was wanting a cup of coffee before a study session or something equally stupid.", Itachi rolled his eyes.

"I'm amazed at how stupid they think we are. I mean, sheesh. You and Kabuto are the top students in our grade and my grades aren't bad. No one with minimal intelligence is going to kill someone and stash their body in a classroom."

Itachi was quiet as they walked back to the track. His mind was reeling. Why would someone kill Anna? Why would they then stash her body in Ibiki's classroom? It didn't make a lick of sense. Unless someone had a grudge against him or Kisame...

"What happened?", Temari gasped, rushing up to them, Kankuro in tow, Deidara and Sasori a little behind them. "I heard you were brought in for questioning."

Itachi glanced over at the blond member of their group. "That's true", he said calmly. "What are you doing out here, Kankuro?"

"Oh, you know...skipping class. There's so much commotion, I doubt anyone knows I'm gone. Besides, I'd just be held up in my homeroom. No one's left their homerooms, and I was curious."

"So...the younger students don't know someone's dead?", Kisame asked.

"Nope. Just me."

"Lucky you."

"Itachi? Are you mad at me, un?", Deidara asked.

One glance into those bright blue eyes was enough to make Itachi shake his head. "No. I'm just thinking."

"About what, un?"

"I think this killer is trying to get to me.", Itachi said. Deidara, Sasori, Kisame, Kankuro, and Temari all stared at him.

"That's a pretty bold accusation", Temari finally stated.

"I know", Itachi replied. "But I find it sort of odd that the woman I worked for was murdered and put in my homeroom."

"But Itachi", Kisame said. "I worked for her, too."

"Not as long as I did, though, and you don't have Ibiki for homeroom."

"Eh. I'm sure you're just reading too much into it. I wouldn't worry about it", Temari assured him.

"I hope so. I don't want to die", Kisame said.

"Oh, you don't have to worry yet. The killer's going in reverse order to cause me more pain. Toby'll be the next victim." Itachi's face remained as calm and emotionless as ever, making it impossible to tell if he was joking or being serious.

"No body is going to die", Sasori stated firmly. "Now, stop. You're scaring Deidara."

Itachi just shrugged.

He and Sasori didn't speak another word to each other. Not then, not when Sarutobi came out and dismissed them for the rest of the day's classes, not for the rest of the day.

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"Gaara!"

The redhead blinked at the sound of his name. A moment later, his uncle, Yashamaru, poked his head into the room Gaara shared with Kankuro. Yashamaru smiled gently at Gaara, and his eyes sparkled kindly.

"You have a phone call", he said. "Someone named Lee."

Gaara gave his uncle on of his rare smiles-one of the ones where the person they're aimed at knows you truly feel affection for them-and took the phone. "Hello?"

"Gaara!", Lee called energetically from the other end of the phone.

Gaara pulled the phone away from his ear. It sounded as though Lee was trying to shout to him from across a football field. "What is it, Lee?"

"I just rented The Grudge!", Lee proclaimed happily. "Wanna come over and watch it with me?"

"Sure. I'll bring rum raisin ice cream", Gaara said in a deadpan voice.

Lee made a gagging noise.

Gaara chuckled. "I was kidding, Lee"

"Ah, of course, of course.", Lee's cheerful voice continued.

Gaara smirked. Lee getting drunk off of ice cream had been funny, but he wouldn't intentionally make Lee drunk again. Or would he? Mint green eyes flickered deviously.

"Anyhow. Come over whenever. I'm going to straighten things up." Lee clicked the phone off.

Gaara stared, Amazed, as the phone buzzed loudly. How anyone could have so much energy was beyond him.

Gaara climbed off his bed as Kankuro came into the room. The older brother threw his things onto the floor and started up their computer without even looking at the younger boy. Gaara could tell, though he'd never ask why, that Kankuro was very upset.

"Bye, everyone! Be back in a bit!", Temari's voice called out. Yashamaru replied with something or the other, and Gaara heard the front door open. Yup. Big sister just left, and big brother was in a foul mood. Definitely time to leave the house.

"Where are you going?", Kankuro asked shortly. His dark green eyes never left the computer screen as Gaara's mint-green ones flicked in his direction.

"Lee's house"

"Oh."

Gaara turned towards the door. His hand hand had just touched the knob when his brother said "Be careful"

He was taken aback. His brother always pretended to want nothing to do with him. Gaara's hand slipped off the door knob and he looked at his brother, waiting for him to say more.

"Well? Aren't you going?", Kankuro's ears were red at the tips.

Gaara nodded. He had just pushed the door open when a feminine shriek pierced the air.

"Temari!", Kankuro was on his feet in seconds. He pushed past Gaara and rushed out the door.

Gaara shook his head and jumped out their open bedroom window. He could see someone in a cloak and mask wrestling with his sister.

Gaara rushed over to help her at the same time his brother and uncle came tearing out the front door.

The person wrestling with Temari let go of her and took off running. Kankuro ran off after him or her. It was impossible to tell, as it could have been a tall woman or a slender man. Yashamaru helped Temari to her feet and supported her back to the house. Gaara decided to stay with his sister and uncle. She needed them right now.

"It's alright. You're safe now", Yashamaru said gently, helping her into a chair and getting her a glass of juice.

"What if he comes back?", Temari asked, taking a sip of the juice her uncle had given her.

Yashamaru chucked softly. "If Kankuro catches him, there won't be anything left to come back."

The phone rang and the three jumped. Yashamaru looked at the caller ID and handed Gaara the phone. It was Lee. Gaara'd forgotten about him.

He answered and watched as his uncle pulled out one of five first aid kits in the house, this one conviently placed on top of the refridgerator, and applied ointment to a few cuts and bruises his sister had.

"I won't be able to come. Temari was attacked-" Gaara trailed off as the line went dead.

Five minutes later, Lee was at his house to make sure everything was alright/

Despite all the chaos, Gaara had to smile.

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"See you later, Sakura-Chan", Toby said, smiling at the pretty girl he was dropping off. He'd been spending a lot of time with Sakura as of late.

The girl kissed his cheek and opened the door. "Thanks again, Toby. I had a wonderful time."

Toby laughed. "Good. Because you're paying next time!"

Sakura stuck her tounge out at him and went inside her house. As her door swung shut behind her, Toby smiled.

He'd always thought he was gay, but now he was wondering if he was bi. Or even straight, sine the guy he'd liked looked so much like a girl.

So much confusion, but it didn't matter. He was very happy right now. Toby blinked, his smile fading a little, as he spotted a boy a few years younger than himself standing alone. Well, standing wasn't exactly right, since the kid was half-doubled over, coughing.

"Hey. Are you alright?", Toby asked. Part of him knew he should stop talking to strangers he just saw on the street, but he couldn't leave someone who looked so sick out on the road. Besides, the boy hardly looked threatening.

The boy looked at him out of dull eyes that were a startling green color. "I'm fine. Just waiting for someone."

"Your brother?", Toby asked.

"Sort of.", the boy replied, toying with a strand of his longish hair.

"Who would leave their sick brother out on the side of the road? It's getting cold out. You'll get worse."

"I'm sure he'll be here soon. He's usually on time, if not early." Dark circles lined the boy's eyes and Toby found himself wondering how much he weighed. He was very thin, probably the result of some sort of chronic illness.

"Here. Take my jacket.", Toby said, shrugging it off and draping it on the boy's too-thin shoulders. "My name's Toby Uchiha. You got a name or should I just call you kid?"

A smile flickered briefly on the boy's face. He brushed his fingers over his hair again and said softly "Kimimaro Kaguya."

Toby nodded. Will you be alright out here?", he asked kindly. "Should I stay with you until your brother gets here?"

Kimimaro shook his head. "Thank you, but I'll be alright." He held out Toby's jacket to him. "He won't be long."

Toby nodded again. "Why don't you hold onto that for now? You need it more than I do. I'll meet you back here tomorrow at four to get it back."

Kimimaro didn't say anything as he put his arms through the sleeves of Toby's jacket. Toby smiled and started to walk away when Kabuto from his band class ran right into him. The two boys fell down and stared at each other.

"Sorry about that", Kabuto apologized, giving Toby a kind smile. "I'm late meeting up with someone."

"Well, don't worry. I made sure he's OK for you." Toby was pulled to his feet by Kabuto. He smiled at the two boys and headed for home.

He'd walked about five feet when he got the feeling he was being followed. Of course the streets were so crowded with people bustling from shop to shop that he quickly decided he was being paranoid.

The feeling didn't go away. "Is anyone there?", he asked. No response. Toby sighed. If he was being followed, the person had been quick to duck amoung the crowds.

Toby eyed a large tree near one of the shops. If he could climb up that, he would be able to see everything and everyone, and then he could determine if someone was following him or if he was going crazy. Carefully, Toby climbed up the tree. Knowing his luck, he would fall out. After a few minutes, he was seated on one of the upper branches, looking down. Nothing looked suspicious.

"Miss me?", a voice asked in Toby's ear. He felt strong hands on his back. Toby looked back hoping to see the face of his attacker, but the attacker was too quick. Toby felt strangely dazed as he fell towards the ground. He heard a woman scream, then felt amazing pain as a sickening thud issued from his left arm. He heard more screams and felt someone touch his left arm and state that it was broken. Kabuto. Toby reconized his voice. He tilted his head and saw Kimimaro, very white-face, on a cellphone. Toby then felt his jacket being laid over him like a blanket and heard Kabuto asking him his age.

"Tree. Up in the tree...", Toby started.

"It's a;right. You fell out. Your arm is broken and you make have a concussion. The ambulance is on its way."

"No, I was pushed", Toby stated firmly.

Kabuto opened his mouth to speak-perhaps to tell Toby there was no one up in the tree-but the ambulance came just then.

Toby was loaded into the ambulance and his parents called.

He was very angry when no one even bothered to check the tree for the person who'd tried to kill him.

What was this world coming to?

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Kisame spent the next few days in a state of paranoia. He kept checking over his shoulder making sure no one wanted to kill him. It would have been funny except this proved Itachi's "they're trying to get to me" theory was true. The attacks on Temari and Toby where too much of a coincidence not to be. Itachi shuddered to think what would had happened had Temari's brothers and uncle not been home, had the killer followed Toby down instead of letting the ambulance take him-or worse, had gone to the hospital to finish him off. Whoever it was, it was an amature.

"Think hard, Itachi", Sasori stated at lunch one afternoon. "Who did you piss off enough to make them want to hurt you this way?"

"Envy is a deadly sin", Toby stated, coming up to them. "Maybe it's someone who is jealous of you"

"It could be a guy who was left by his girlfriend because she wanted to date Itachi", Kisame said thoughtfully.

"Or any girl, un. Itachi's a heart breaker, un."

"Oh, goodie. So it's about three-quarters of the 12th grade" Itachi rolled his eyes. Leave it to Kisame and Deidara to unknowingly put salt in his wounds.

"Eh, whatever. You still have to sign my cast, Itachi." Toby pulled out a black sharpie and held it out to his cousin.

"Now, what obligates me to sign that nasty thing?", Itachi asked, taking the sharpie from Toby.

"Well, everyone else did. Even Naruto and Sasuke, look", Toby pointed to a spot near his elbow. In tiny, perfect script was written "God made the rivers, and God made the lakes. Then God made Toby-even God makes mistakes."

Itachi laughed. "My brother loves you."

"I know it. And Naruto spilled ramen on my arm." Toby wrinked his nose. "Anyway, here's your spot." Toby pointed to a spot near Sasuke's inspirational message.

Itachi was going to write something to rival his brother's message, but decided against it since it was his fault Toby's arm was broken to begin with. Instead he wrote "Get well soon" and sent his cousin on his way. Toby didn't care-he was on his way to meet Sakura. The Akatsuki members watched him run off and collectively shook their heads.

"Anyway...", Kisame muttered to break the silence.

"That note was quite touching. He's definitely your brother, Itachi", Sasori said, brushing his crimson bangs off his forehead. He tapped a piece of paper he had in front of him with one small, pale hand. "Getting back on track here-suspects?"

"Well, the cops said Kabuto was near the coffee shop the night Anna died, but I don't think it was him." Itachi cast a glance at the boy who was seated near by, talking animatedly with a pretty red haired girl.

"Couldn't have been him", Sasori stated. "He was the one who reconigized Toby had a concussion and kept him awake. He probably saved him. If he wanted him dead, why go through all the trouble?"

"Haven't you ever watched a detective movie/ He'd offer assistance to shift the blame off of him, Oh, he's such a sweet boy, he saved the idiot in the tree, blah, blah, blah. It could be a trick."

"Kisame, Toby was pushed from a tree, un. Wouldn't the witneesses have seen Kabuto drop down, un?", Deidara asked.

"He's got a point", Sasori said. "If Kabuto had been in the tree, the fifteen people who saw Toby fall would have seen him jump down"

"Well, what about that kid he had with him? Kimishima or whatever his name was?"

This time it was Itachi who shot him down. "Kimimaro, and believe me. I've seen the kid. He's not going to be climbing any trees anytime soon."

"Maybe it's an act...", Kisame said, but he didn't look like he believed his own words.

Itachi shook his head. "No one can pretend to cough up blood. Anyway, I don't see what those two would want with me."

"Can you think of anyone else?", Sasori asked, his reddish-brown eyes on the blank piece of paper.

Itachi shook his head.

"Then we're back to square one..."

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"You've been spending a lot of time with Naruto lately", Itachi commented lightly later that evening. Sasuke, dressed in a pair of white pants and a dark blue T-shirt, rolled his eyes.

"So? I'm not allowed to be his friend?", he asked hotly.

"You're fighting a loosing battle, kiddo. Just give in." Itachi made kissy faces at Sasuke..

"I'm going to kill you", Sasuke snapped wappishly.

"You can do that, but who is going to take you two to the bowling ally?" Itachi ruffled Sasuke's hair and smiled at him. Deidara had called him a heart breaker, but he was willing to bet in a few years his brother would be even prettier than he was.

"Idiot." The younger brother stalked off.

"Oh, Sasuke-Kun. Don't get too angry. It's bad for your skin!"

Itachi ducked as Sasuke's shoe came flying at him. Maybe he should stop teasing his brother.

"Are you ready to go pick up your friend?", Itachi asked.

Sasuke reappeared and retrived the shoe he had tossed at Itachi's head.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

A few hours later, the Uchiha brothers, Naruto, and Kisame were piled in Itachi's car on their way home from the bowling ally.

"Sheesh. Where did that one get his license? Chick-Fil-A?", Itachi commented as a driver swerved in front of him and slowed down to a wonderful crawl of five miles an hour.

"Now, now, Itachi. Sarutobi warned everyone to be careful. I think that includes driving safely."

"He's the one who cuts people off and then goes five miles an hour"

"Just go around him, Itachi", Kisame bit his lip looking anxious. Itachi suddenly felt very protective of him and angry at whoever it was that was toying with them and making his boyfriend a nervous wreck.

Itachi obediantly merged to the other lane to ease some of Kisame's tension. He glanced in the mirror and could see Naruto and Sasuke were fast asleep in the backseat.

"Itachi! Look out!", Kisame cried as the car swerved towards them. Itachi stomped the gas, barely managing to get past the driver.

"What the fuck is that crazy bastard doing?", Itachi hissed. The car was right up on them now, even though Itachi was pushing ninty miles an hour.

"Kisame, hang on ", Itachi said, merging quickly to the left.

Kisame was jolted forward. A few seconds later, the boys felt the car ram right into theirs. Itachi wrapped his arms around the steering wheel in an attempt to keep his head from smashing into the windsheild. Kisame's hands curled around the bottom of the seat and he pushed himself back. They were both aware of Sasuke and Naruto screaming in the back seat, and Itachi barked at them to hang on. There was a second impact, and then Itachi's car flipped over a few times before landing smashed up against some trees off the road.

Itachi peeled his eyes open first after they'd all lost consciousness. He felt sick and disoriented, and for the first time, very afraid. "Kisame?", he asked, nudging his boyfriend's shoulder.

Kisame groaned and opened his eyes. "Are the kids alright?", he asked.

"I-I'm not sure. I'm going to need your help if they're hurt." Itachi unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed onto his seat.

"Sasuke. Naruto. Are you two alright?", he whispered.

Naruto pressed his hand to his forehead. "I feel sick. What happened?"

"Someone ran us off the road", Itachi said, reaching in the back and putting his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. He shook the younger boy gently."Sasuke?"

Naruto screamed. "Don't shake him!", he exclaimed. "He's hurt!"

Sasuke's head lolled forward and Itachi could see a line of blood running down his pale cheek.

"Shit!", Itachi cursed. He threw open the door and moved as quickly as he could to Sasuke's side. "Naruto, if you can stand up, get out and come stand by me. Kisame, my cellphone is under the seat. Call 911."

Itachi brushed Sasuke's hair back, feeling sick at the sight of the gash and bruise on Sasuke's left temple. The younger boy was knocked out cold, and Itachi felt worried. He had to get Sasuke up somehow.

"Sasuke!" Itachi pinched his brother's hand as hard as he could. It worked. Sasuke pulled his arm away from Itachi and his dark eyes flickered.

"Come on, kiddo. Stay with me."

"Itachi?" Sasuke's glassy eyes were unfocused. "I'm so tired..."

"I know. But don't go to sleep. You might not wake up."

"But I'm so tired..my head hurts so much..." Sasuke's eyes started to slip shut again.

"Bastard!", Naruto yelled, tears on his cheeks. "Your brother told you not to go to sleep!"

"Shut up, Moron. You're making the pain worse"

Kisame appeared beside Itachi and Naruto then. He nudged the two out of the way, unbucked Sasuke's seatbelt, and lifted him from the car. Wordlessly, he craddled the younger boy to him and walked towards the side of the road, where he set the injured boy down against a tree.

Itachi and Naruto went over to them.

"What'd they say?", Itachi asked.

"To stand as close to the side of the road as we can while remaining safe and to make sure Sasuke stays awake-alert if we can keep him talking."

"And?", Itachi asked, kneeling down beside Sasuke to prod him awake again.

"And make sure we stay together. Other than that., we wait." Kisame looked nervous at the prospect of being outside in the dark when someone who wanted them dead was lurking around.

"Alright, then. We wait", Itachi said softly.

He was sure he and Kisame had the same question on their minds as he instructed Naruto to keep Sasuke talking. When the ambulance got there, would they be taking away four injured-but still living-teenagers, or would they be loading up dead bodies?

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A/N: Whew! This was a bitch to write! I took out a few scenes to get this up. I hope you all enjoyed it. My update day is officially changing to Sunday. As the chapters get longer, I find I don't have enough time to finish typing them up on Saturdays. I guess that is it. See you all next Sunday for HSB Chapter 7!


	7. Investigations

A/N: Holy...I am at seven chapters and pushing 3000 hits. Ah, love. I'm so glad you people like it. Anyhow, this is an important chapter for me because it marks the half-way point of this fic. That's right, I have it all worked out, and High School Blues will be 14 chapters long. It's action and angst from here on out. Stay with me, I assure you this is going to be a good read.

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"I want to see my brother.", Itachi demanded. His voice was low, but it sounded pretty threatening. He didn't care that he was hurt, too, or that he'd dislocated two of his fingers in his left hand, had a small gash above his left eyebrow, or even the fact that his ribs were bruised and he probably shouldn't be walking.

Normally the sight of a seventeen-year-old car crash victim wouldn't be threatening, especially not when his hair was hanging loose around his shoulders and he was still in a green paper dressing gown, but Itachi Uchiha was not your normal seventeen-year-old car crash victim. The nurse flinched, her pretty face growing pale.

"Itachi, he's getting a brain scan now. Your brother suffered a pretty bad bump to his head and his leg is broken in three places..."

"You mean he has a concussion and multiple fractures? You don't have to water things down. I'm not stupid. Now, you go find Sasuke's doctor and tell him or her that I want to see my brother."

"Why don't we get you to bed? You've obviously had a rough night, Itachi. You're injured, too. You seem to forget that."

"I don't care about my injuries!" Itachi, who had kept his voice relatively low up until this point, was ready to scream. Why wouldn't they let him see Sasuke? Their refusal to let him see his brother made him worry that Sasuke's injuries where worse than what he was being told.

"Your ribs are bruised, it's a wonder they didn't break from your airbag, you have a bruise on your left temple, and you still haven't let us relocate those dislocated fingers of yours. I'm amazed you can even stand up straight. We can't let you see another patient until we're sure you're alright."

"You let me see Naruto and Kisame." Itachi wasn't buying her explanation. "What's it matter if you let me see Sasuke? You think the sight of him in critical care is going to make my ribs break suddenly?"

"Itachi, please. You're causing a scene..." The nurse was starting to get nervous. Itachi didn't realize just how fragile he was.

"I don't think you understand. Someone tried to kill us tonight!"

The nurse glared at him. "Are you implying that someone is going to attack your brother when he's got doctors around him?"

"I wouldn't be surprised." His dark eyes glittered broodingly as they drifted to his arm. They'd drawn his blood to make sure he hadn't been driving drunk and the person who'd done it had not been very good at it. Deep purplish-black swelling decorated his pale arm. It was both gruesome and fascinating to look at.

"Why don't we get you some sedatives so you can sleep if you don't want to be treated. Your parents can deal with you when they get here."

Itachi sighed. "Fine. If I let them put my fingers back into place and check my injuries, can I see Sasuke then?"

The nurse nodded. "I think that will be alright."

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Itachi's eyelids drooped. He was suddenly very tired, but he couldn't go to sleep. Not until he saw Sasuke. He didn't even protest when they suggested he ride to Sasuke's room in a wheelchair. His head dropped back against the headrest and he worked to keep his eyes open. As soon as he saw Sasuke, he could rest.

Itachi drew in a short breath when they took him to Sasuke's room. Well, room wasn't entirely accurate. He'd be moved tomorrow into the room with Naruto, but right now they were keeping him in the ICU overnight for observation. There was his brother, hooked up to machines that were monitoring his head rate, pulse rate, and every other kind of rate that could be monitored. Thankfully, Sasuke could breathe on his own and didn't need any medicine drips. Itachi didn't think he could bear seeing his younger brother on a respirator or ivs. Sasuke's face was stark-white, painful-looking swelling on his temple stood out vividly against his pale skin. His leg was in a cast, elevated off the bed. But he was alive. He would, as far as they could tell, be alright.

"I think I'm ready to go back to my room now.", Itachi murmured, pulling his gaze from his brother.

The nurse pushing the wheelchair nodded and took him back to the room he'd be sharing with Kisame.

Kisame woke up when he heard them enter. He looked at Itachi with concern in his eyes.

"Is Sasuke...", he trailed off.

Itachi shook his head. "No. He'll be alright."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it", Itachi said in such a tone that Kisame knew the conversation was closed.

The blue-skinned teenager lay back down and was asleep again within minutes.

Itachi didn't sleep at all that night.

He stayed up and watched over his boyfriend, pretending to be asleep the few times Kisame woke up during the night.

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Kisame and Itachi were released from the hospital on Saturday morning, Naruto went home late Sunday evening.

"Just in time for you to go back to school" Jiraiaya had teased to a groaning, complaining blond.

Sasuke, however, was to remain in the hospital until his leg got a little better. So here was Itachi, standing in front of Orochimaru's classroom Monday afternoon, trying to see if he could get Sasuke's homework for the week.

"_...My power over you grows stronger yet..."_

Itachi smirked as the music reached his ears. The creepy teacher loved listening to music from plays when he thought no one would be entering his classroom. "Orochimaru-Sensei", he called."It's Itachi. Sasuke's going to be in the hospital for a while so I came to pick up his work."

"_...and though you turn from me to glance behind, the phantom of the opera is there, inside your mind..."_

Itachi frowned. The only response he'd received was the creepy-sounding music.

"Sensei. I know you're disappointed, but you can rape Sasuke when he gets back. I'll even gift-wrap him for you."

Itachi braced himself for Orochimaru to yell at him for saying such a disrespectful thing, but all he heard was more Phantom of the Opera music.

Itachi frowned. He couldn't still be angry about that prank he, Kisame, and Deidara had pulled on him in 9th grade, could he? Though it had been funny-upon learning the feminine-acting band teacher wore nail polish, the boys had gone to the store without Sasori knowing and had bought nail polish in an assortment of flamboyant colors. They'd then bought a frilly pink basket and put a big bow on it. The boys had made a big show of presenting Orochimaru with the "gift" in class the next day. Orochimaru's face had obtained actual color that day. He didn't speak to them the rest of the year, either. Itachi had actually been surprised he didn't fail them.

"Sensei?", Itachi called, stepping into the classroom.

Orochimaru was lying curled on his side on the floor, his head resting almost delicately on his arm. Itachi rushed over to him and flipped him onto his back. The teacher was burning up, his cheeks tinged a slight pink, his breath coming out in short rasps. Itachi saw an empty cup beside Orochimaru, most of the contents spilled onto the rug, and quickly came to the conclusion that the creepy band teacher had been poisoned.

"Sensei?", Itachi gently shook Orochimaru's shoulders.

He received no response. Itachi ran to the door, hoping Kisame was still waiting outside. He was.

"Hey. Can you go get Sarutobi? Let him know I think Orochimaru was poisoned and I need him in here now. If you by any chance see Tsunade, send her in here. Or Kabuto. Doesn't matter."

Kisame nodded. His face took on a sort of grayish tinge and Itachi could see the nervousness in his boyfriend's eyes before he turned and headed off to get Sarutobi.

Itachi went back over to the unconscious teacher. He was no doctor-to be honest, needles made him quiver-but he felt it would probably be safer to watch over him until Kisame came back. His eyes darted around the classroom. What if the killer was still in the classroom and planned to attack once a whole group was assembled? He was aware of every sound-had the clock always been so loud? He supposed he was just nervous-where was Kisame?

A few moments later, Kisame returned with Sarutobi in tow, Jiriaya and Tsunade with them. Tsunade immediately knelt down beside Orochimaru and started checking his condition. She glanced at Kisame and Itachi. "Go on. Get out of here."

The boys had no choice but to comply, wondering if the teacher would be alright.

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Orochimaru returned to school on Thursday. By then, the news that someone had tried to poison him had spread through the whole school like wildfire. He still looked sick, but as he walked through the halls with his hair swishing around him and his earrings gleaming, the students were given the impression that he wouldn't be dying anytime soon.

"Ok. So what have we established here?", Sasori asked as they watched Orochimaru walk past them after school that day.

"The killer is absolutely insane?", Kisame suggested.

"He or she is someone in this school, un?", Deidara asked.

"Ummm...we don't know that, and that's a possibility." Sasori looked to Itachi expectantly.

"The killer isn't just targeting people connected to me. They're also targeting people who are connected to people connect to me."

"Ohhh...Un. That makes sense, un." Deidara nodded. "We hang around Kankuro more than we do Temari, un."

Sasori nodded, happy that he'd caught on so quickly. It wasn't that the blond was stupid, because he was pretty smart, but he could be dense sometimes.

"The attack on Orochimaru-one of Sasuke's teachers-was a warning for us. We can also assume the killer is highly intelligent and knows their medical stuff.", Itachi explained.

"This also proves my theory that they're toying with Itachi.", Sasori added. He rubbed his face. The others took in the dark circles around his eyes and the fact that his skin was paler than usual. He was loosing sleep over this.

Kisame slung his arm around Sasori's shoulder. "When was the last time you slept?", he asked. "Because you're not doing Itachi any good if you're three seconds from passing out."

The redhead shrugged. "A few days maybe?"

"Danna! You need sleep, un!", Deidara scolded him.

Sasori ignored them. "I don't get it...", he muttered.

"Detective Sasori on the case", Itachi said humorlessly. "What do you suggest, oh brilliant detective?"

Sasori rolled his eyes. "I thought that would be obvious. We inspect the band room, the spot where you guys were ran off the road. We go where Toby was attacked and go to Anna's shop."

"And before we do all this, you get some sleep", Kisame said firmly.

"I say we all get some rest. I'm going to bring Sasuke his homework and get some sleep myself. We can meet up at nine in front of my house.", Itachi said.

"Alright. I'll get Deidara at 8:30 and we'll be there", Sasori told him.

"Right. See you later."

The boys headed their separate ways.

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"What do we do if we run into the killer?", Kisame asked later that night as they all stood in Itachi's driveway.

"Make them pay for torturing us, un!"

Sasori smiled a bit. He was, in a way, happy to see Deidara being his usual cheerful, cocky self. The blond had been acting weird the past few days, and the redhead felt it was his fault.

"We'll go in pairs", Itachi cut in. "I don't like the idea of going alone. Sasori, you and Deidara can check the band room and go to the spot where Toby was attacked. Kisame and I will check out where the car accident happened and look around Anna's shop. We'll meet back here at midnight."

The other boys nodded. Going off in pairs sounded much better than going alone.

"And if we meet the killer?", Kisame repeated his question.

"We get in our cars and drive to the police station", Sasori told him.

"That will work. If he follows you, though, be careful. Pull off the road or something. Don't give him the chance to crash you", Itachi instructed.

"Alright. Come on, Deidara", Sasori said, motioning for the blond to follow him.

Itachi watched them get into Sasori's car, the excitement and danger of what they were doing made his heart pound. He looked at Kisame and saw resignition etched on his face. As they climbed into his car, Itachi found himself morbidly wondering if this would be the last time he'd see his friends alive.

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"Kisame, check this out", Itachi said. "It's hair."

Kisame appeared at Itachi's elbow. Sure enough, several strands of hair were visible wrapped around a table leg. The strands weren't Anna's, either.

"Either there's more than one killer, or our killer has very unusual tastes when it comes to hair color.", Kisame murmured.

"Has to be two of them-look. The hair's different lengths. The white hairs look longer than the red ones. What interesting luck. I can't believe the cops missed this clue" Itachi stared at the hair a moment longer.

"Should I call the police and have them come get the hair?", Kisame asked.

"Oh, yes. And then we can try to explain why we broke into our former employer's coffee shop if we had nothing to do with her death", Itachi replied sarcastically.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Kisame bit his lip.

Itachi glanced at him. Even though his face remained emotionless, he felt bad. It was obvious he'd hurt Kisame's feelings. He sighed. "Go get me some plastic gloves."

The taller boy hesitated.

"Kisame!", Itachi hissed. He was rummaging through the supply cabinet in search of a plastic bag.

Kisame sighed and went over to the blender. This was so wrong. He snapped two gloves out of the box beside it and handed them to Itachi.

Itachi took them, glancing at him as though he were stupid. This hurt-Kisame wasn't stupid. He just knew when things were out of their hands. This was definitely one of those cases.

"Here we go" Itachi had separated the red hairs from the silver ones in two plastic sandwich bags. He stuffed the bags in his pocket, his eyes gleaming.

Somehow, Kisame wasn't as thrilled as Itachi was.

"What are you going to do with those?", Kisame asked.

"Show them to Sasori and Deidara, of course"

"Itachi, we should just give the hair to the police."

Itachi ignored him. "Come on, Kisame. We've over-stayed our welcome."

Kisame signed. It was times like this when Itachi's cold attitude made him wish he'd fallen for...well, someone else. The thought never lasted long, though, as Itachi would then do something-in this case, put his arm around his waist-that would chase the thought from his mind.

"Think Sasori and Deidara are having more luck than we are?", Kisame asked as Itachi opened the door for him.

"I hope not, because the only way for them to have better luck is if they run into the killers themselves."

Kisame shuddered.

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"Danna, un! Look at this, un!"

"This had better be important, Deidara", Sasori said, going over to the blond.

"I think this is Kabuto's scarf, un. It says "K.Y.", un. Kabuto Yakushi, un."

"So? Kabuto lives with Orochimaru. Why would him forgetting his scarf be such a big deal?", Sasori asked.

"Not the scarf, un. The things in the scarf, un." Deidara passed the blue men's scarf to him. Sasori craddled it gingerly in his small hands. Wrapped in the scarf where several syringes filled with some sort of clear liquid.

"Where did you find this, Deidara?", he whispered.

"In Orochimaru's drawer, un."

Sasori felt the blood drain from his face. His reddish-brown eyes scanned the band room.

"We have to get out of here."

"Danna, why?"

Sasori opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by some banging.

"Stay here", he mouthed to Deidara. The sound was coming from the back room, where the instruments where kept.

Sasori opened the door and gasped. Kabuto, bound and gagged, tumbled out. He untied him quickly.

"I thought I was going to be in there all night!", Kabuto gasped. "There was someone in here-a woman, I think. With red hair. She caught me completely off guard." He gave a sheepish smile and put his hand to the back of his head.

"How long ago was that, un? Is she still here, un?", Deidara asked excitedly.

"I...don't know...", Kabuto admitted. "I think I've been in there a while."

"Well, come with us, then. It's not safe here, especially alone." Sasori told him.

Kabuto nodded. The three of them left the band room then.

Sasori looked at his watch. "Eleven o'clock, and we still haven't gone to where Toby was attacked. We'd better get a move on."

The group walked towards Sasori's car.

"Race you there, un", Deidara called, breaking into a run.

"Deidara, slow down. You're gonna..."

Sasori trailed off as Deidara slipped to the ground. He shook his head. Deidara was playing stupid now.

"Alright. Get off the floor", Sasori said, going over to him.

Deidara didn't move. Sasori was growing worried. He knelt down beside Deidara and slapped him. "Stop fooling around! This is serious!"

"He's not playing..." Sasori heard the voice say. "I knocked him out".

The redhead turned his head to see who it was and felt a sharp crack above his temple. Then the world around him slowly went dark.

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A/N: Mwahahahahahahahahahaha. I'm evil! Sorry for the delay, I didn't like how the chapter initially came out. I played with it for a while. I hope it was enjoyable. I'm getting some food now. Please review.


	8. Night Games

A/N: Sheesh. Yeah, I took forever for this, I'm sorry. School's been a pain in the ass, and sadly, that must come 1st. But here's my update. I hope you'll like it. Enjoy!

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"_You're new here, aren't you, un?"_

_The small, redheaded boy gazed up from where he was eating and found himself gazing into a pair of brilliant sapphire eyes. The eyes belonged to a blond-haired boy who looked so much like a girl the only way the redhead knew he was a boy was his uniform. Honestly, what mother put their 10-year-old son in a chin-length bob? Dispite the blond's strange appearance and weird way of talking, he seemed nice enough. The redhead nodded._

"_You can come sit with us, un. If you don't want to eat alone, un", The blond motioned to a table where two other young boys about their age were seated. They both had black hair. The redhead got up and started putting things back into his lunchbox. _

"_So, you got a name, un? Mine's Deidara, un", the blond, now identified as Deidara, continued on cheerfully._

_The redhead lifted his lunchbox. "Sasori", he replied, smiling. He wasn't the only one with a girlie-sounding name. _

"_Nice to meet you, Sasori, un! Come on, un!". Deidara smiled and broke into a run, determined to close the ten foot gap keeping them from the table as quickly as possible. Sasori watched as Deidara slipped and landed with a thud on the ground_.

"DEIDARA!", Sasori yelped and his beautiful reddish eyes snapped open. He jerked upright and met immediate resistance-his hands were tied tightly behind his back and his ankles were bound together.

"It's about time one of you woke up".

The voice! The same cold, feminine voice Sasori had heard outside. He strained his eyes to see who his captor was, but all he could make out was Kabuto's silver hair glinting in the moonlight streaming through the window. He quickly guessed that he was still unconscious and his head was hanging down by the fact that he couldn't see his glasses.

"Who are you?", Sasori asked into the darkness.

A light snapped on. He quickly shut his eyes and opened them again, letting them adjust. Two girls were visible now-a girl with blond hair and green eyes, and a shorter girl with black hair and gray eyes.

Sasori had never seen them before in his life.

"Oi. Get up, Buto-Kun. Time to get up now!", the blond said, going over to Kabuto and nudging him with her foot.

Kabuto groaned. "Tenshi, is that you?", he asked, lifting his head.

"You two know each other?", Sasori asked.

"We've met", Kabuto replied, a definate note of bitterness in his voice.

The blond identified as Tenshi laughed. "You're very cunning, Buto-Kun. Very cunning indeed."

"Not cunning enough if I couldn't figure out who you were working with."

Sasori suddenly felt confused and angry. Kabuto wasn't some innocent bystander who had gotten himself kidnapped or a poor sap who had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He knew atleast one person behind the attempted murders. He knew and he hadn't said anything to them!

Tenshi smiled at the look on Sasori's face then turned her attention back to Kabuto. "Looks like the game ends tonight. You didn't tell them, but you meddled too far. Don't worry. We'll uphold our promise not to harm Kimimaro or Tayuya. We're not interested in them anyway."

"Can someone explain what the hell is going on here?", Sasori demanded.

The gray-eyed girl turned her attention towards him. "Your friend Itachi caused my sister great pain. So we're making him suffer by watching those he loves suffer."

"Sister? Itachi's been going out with Kisame since April. Don't tell me it took you that long to work up a plan like this. You've failed every murder except the first one."

The girl smiled. "Sasori, right? I heard you were condescending. I also think for someone so smart you are incredibly stupid. We did not fail. We only wanted Anna dead, no one else. We wanted Itachi to think we wanted to kill everyone to scare him."

Sasori bit his lip. Now that he was being given information, he really wasn't sure if he wanted it. And where was Deidara? There was no sign of the cheerful blond in the room...

Tenshi seemed to read his mind. "Your boyfriend's fine, Sasori. For the time being, anyway."

Sasori's blood ran cold. How did she know about him and Deidara? They'd kept their relationship under wraps ever since the murders started. Stay calm, he scolded himself. Maybe she didn't mean boyfriend the way she thought he did. "What?", he asked.

"We were on our way to Anna's and guess who we saw kissing on a porch?"

"Where is Deidara?", he asked, trying to look like he didn't care too much. If he showed too much concern that'd toy with him more.

The girls exchanged looks with each other. Finally Tenshi spoke.

"I'll take Sasori down to see Deidara. You can take care of Kabuto-I'd rather not be the one who takes care of him."

"Well, that's lovely. You don't want to kill me, but you had no problem using my medicines to poison Orochimaru."

Sasori threw a curious glance in Kabuto's direction. Kabuto was stalling. For what?

"Which one did you use, Tenshi? You must have read through my ingrediants, figured out which you could use, and how much, to make Orochimaru sick and not kill him."

"Now, why would I tell you what I used? The point is I made him sick." Tenshi shrugged her shoulders. "Ready to go, Sasori?"

Sasori shot another look at Kabuto. The boy was planning something and he didn't want to ruin his plans. Kabuto nodded for him to go.

"Yeah. I'm ready", Sasori said.

Tenshi cut the ropes off Sasori's feet and pulled him up. "Don't you start screaming, either", she warned.

"It would only waste energy. No one's going to hear me out here.", Sasori replied acidly as she guided him out the door.

The door swung shut behind them.

The gray-eyed girl turned towards Kabuto. Something black and shiny glinted in her hand-a gun.

Kabuto bit his lip and turned his head away. He was not going to give the girl the satisfaction of hearing him beg for his life. The effort would have probably been wasted anyway.

"Pity we have to kill you, too", she said, pointing the gun at him.

Kabuto screwed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the pain.He heard a yowl of pain and the gun going off. A flash of white-hot pain shot through his shoulder. He clenched his teeth together to avoid crying out. Things went fuzzy then and he guessed he must have passed out because next thing he knew he was lying unbound on his back on the floor, Tayuya poking his face.

"Damn, that hurts", Kabuto groaned, sitting up and gingerly putting his fingers to the bleeding wound on his shoulder.

"You got shot-you expect it to tickle or something?", Tayuya asked, rolling her eyes.

"I don't know how Kimimaro puts up with you sometimes, you know that. You are such an ass."

"What about me?", Kimimaro asked from the doorway. He was holding a first aid kit.

"Nothing. What's that for?", Kabuto questioned, motioning to the first aid kit.

"Well, we have to do something about that arm of yours..." Kimimaro shook his head at the sight of it.

"No. No time. Let's go back to my car". Kabuto's eyes flickered over to where the strange girl lay unconscious on the ground. She could wake up at any moment.

"Are you fucking insane? You can't drive your damn car with your arm looking like it went through the fucking meat grinder!", Tayuya exclaimed.

"Such nice language...but yes. I can't drive. That is why Kimimaro is going to drive."

"What? Kabuto-Sensei! I don't know how to drive!" Kimimaro looked horrified.

"Well, you have to learn sometime."

Tayuya muttered something that sounded like "fucking insane".

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Sasori tried to keep from flinching as the thick rope binding his wrists together cut him for the umpteenth time. He didn't want Tenshi to know he was trying to free himself. He glanced back at Deidara who had been laid across the backseat of Tenshi's car. Sasori could see a faint trail of blood running down his face from hitting his head on the pavement. He seriously wished he could reach back and remove the heavy gray tape that covered the blond's mouth. It made him nervous. He also hoped Deidara stayed asleep. If Tenshi was going to kill them, he'd rather the blond sleep through it.

Sasori couldn't prevent this hiss of pain from escaping his lips as the ropes drew blood from him.

"You can stop doing that, you know. You're going to tire yourself out, and you're going to need your strength for the task at hand", Tenshi told him.

The redhead stopped his struggle and looked at her. "Where are you taking us?"

"The Shingeki bridge", Tenshi replied lightly, as though Sasori had asked her what her favorite flavor of ice cream was.

Sasori had the strangest sensation of his stomach dropping to his knees. The Shingeki bridge? What was she taking them there for? The bridge was a popular spot for fishermen because it wasn't very high up, but the waters below were deep. Maybe she wanted to drown them to make their deaths look accidental...

The car stopped. Tenshi got out and walked around to Sasori's door where she opened it and pulled the seatbelt off him. Tenshi was a tall girl, about Itachi's height, and Sasori was surprised when she helped him climb from the car rather than forcefully lift him from it. She then opened the other door and pulled Deidara out and dragged him with her several feet from Sasori. For some reason, she stuck a knife in the ground and then dragged the blond back. She set him carefully on the ground and used a pocket knife to cut the ropes off Sasori's wrists.

"Go get the knife", she told him.

Sasori hesitated. If he got the knife and she used it to kill someone, his fingerprints would be all over the murder weapon.

Tenshi smiled at him like a cat that had gotten into the cream and held her pocket knife against Deidara's face. "He's really pretty. I imagine it would be bad if he got scars all over his face." To prove she was serious, she made a small cut right above Deidara's eyebrow.

Deidara moaned and tried to pull away from the source of his pain.

"Alright! I'll get the knife. Just don't hurt him anymore!", Sasori snarled angrilly.

"Oh my. Agitated again. You certainly anger quickly when it involves someone you care about."

Sasori didn't answer her. He turned away and walked towards the knife. Vaugely he wondered what time it was. It had to be past midnight by now. Itachi and Kisame were probably back at the Uchiha residence wondering where they had got off to. He sighed. How had they gotten into this mess?

Sasori's hand had just closed around the knife when he heard a muffled shriek. He spun around just in time to see Tenshi trying to shove Deidara off the bridge. Deidara was putting up a fight for someone who was tied up and injured, but it wasn't enough. Tenshi forced him over the edge.

"DEIDARA!", Sasori screamed. He wasted no time rushing to the edge of the bridge and throwing himself after Deidara.

His air was knocked from his lungs as he hit the water. It was freezing! No. He didn't have time to think about that now.

"DEIDARA!". He called again, praying the shock of the water hadn't made the blond pass out. Generally the blond's tolerance of the cold was much better than Sasori's, but the blond was injured.

He called the blond's name again, straining his ears for the sound of something. Anything. He heard nothing.

"Come on, Dei. You can't give up now..." Sasori whispered, tears stinging his eyes. Then he saw it-a flash of golden hair just visible on the water's surface. He swam over as quickly as he could and grabbed the blond by the back of his neck. Sasori hoisted Deidara's face above the water and peeled what was left of the tape away from his mouth.

"Can you hear me?", he asked, terrified at how pale the blond's face was.

Deidara's eyes flickered open and he nodded weakly.

"Good. Now listen. I need your help. I want to get us out of the water, but if you move too much, it will weigh me down. I need to to lie back and remain calm. Can you do that?"

Another nod. Sasori felt relieved when the blond lay back on the water, trying to keep himself above the water.

The process was long and exhausting, but Sasori finally managed to drag Deidara to the shore and pulled him from the water. He wasn't sure where he got his strength from-he just knew he had to keep going or they would drown. He carefully laid his boyfriend down on the grass, cut away the ropes, and peeked over at his face. He was stalk pale, but he was breathing.

"Deidara?", he whispered gently.

"Danna, un?" Bright blue eyes peeked open. Sasori was amazed when he was knocked over by the blond who was now sobbing against his chest.

"Shhh...It's OK, Deidara. We're going to be alright. Come on. Can you stand up?"

"Yeah, I think I can get up, un."

With Sasori's help, the blond got clumsily to his feet. He swayed twice before he was able to hold himself upright unsupported.

Sasori wrapped his arm around Deidara's waist and allowed the taller boy to lean on him as they walked back towards the school. When he caught Deidara looking at him, he smiled reassuringly and tried to look like everything would be OK now.

He couldn't shake the suspiscion that the danger was just beginning.

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"You think it's time yet?", Itachi asked. He leaned back against Kisame's chest.

Kisame shifted the smaller boy's weight in his lap and pulled his watch out of his pocket. It was an old, ugly-looking thing his grandfather had given him and he wouldn't be caught dead with it on his wrist.

"Holy shit...", he muttered.

Itachi climbed out of Kisame's lap and peeked curiously at the watch. "That's the right time?"

"Yeah..." Kisame bit his lip and looked nervously at Itachi.

Itachi sighed. "Come on", he said, pulling Kisame to his feet. "Back in my car. We have to go look for them."

"If something bad happened to them..."

"It's OK, Kisame. They're too smart to have gotten themselves hurt."

The boys climbed into Itachi's car and they were off again.

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Ok, this chapter sucks, but I delayed long enough... Next chapter will be better, I promise!


	9. Midnight Car Rides

A/N: Here is chapter 9. Sorry for the delay, I have been insanely busy the past few months. I expect to resume my weekly updates now that I am moved and situated comfortably. Please enjoy!

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"...Or they could have been shot...or got into an accident with a bus...or shoved off a bridge...or they are being dangled over an active volcano right now..."

Itachi sighed. Kisame had been going over the many deaths of Sasori and Deidara for the past twenty minutes and it was getting on his nerves. Though he had to admit, Kisame was getting quite creative. He decided not to mention the fact that there weren't any active volcanos near by.

"Or they could have just forgotten the the time. Christ, Kisame. When did you become so paranoid?" Itachi drummed his fingers on the wheel as he waited for the traffic light to turn green.

"If it was just Deidara, I'd agree with you, but he has Sasori with him. Sasori's almost never late."

"Kisame, they're fine", Itachi replied in what he hoped was a soothing voice.

"Every minute that passes that we can't find them is another minute they could be dead" Kisame hated feeling so helpless and frustrated. Someone wanted them dead, their friends were missing, and Itachi was as calm as though they were mearly lost on a busy road.

"I think that's them right there...", Itachi offered, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

Kisame shifted his gaze and spotted Sasori's pale skin and Deidara's golden hair glinting in the darkness. "They don't look too good. Sasori's holding Deidara up...why aren't they in Sasori's car?"

"Dunno...but you never said they had to be healthy-just alive", Itachi said, pulling his new car up along side the two soaked teenagers.

Kisame jumped out of the car almost as soon as the vehicle stopped-and was punched in the face by Deidara.

"I told Itachi you two had been attacked", Kisame said as lightly as though he were commenting on the weather, holding his nose. Deidara's hands may have looked delicate, but he was still a man and could hit just as hard as a man with hands twice the size of his. It also didn't help Kisame that the blond's ring had caught his nose.

The blond covered his mouth with his hands and pulled away from Sasori. "kisame! I'm so sorry, un!"

Sasori crawled into the front seat next to Itachi and cranked the head way up. "I don't think in eighteen years I've ever been so cold", he murmured, pulling his soaked sweater off with trembling hands.

"Well, you're melting me", Itachi pushed the vents towards the shaking redhead.

Kisame and Deidara slid into the backseat of Itachi's car. The blond rested his head against Kisame's shoulder and drifted off to sleep.

"Hey, Deidara?", Kisame asked nervously

"Let him sleep. We've had a hard night", Sasori said, stiffling a yawn.

"So what exactly happened?", Kisame asked. "You two are soaked".

"Well, we got abducted by one of the killers-yeah, there's more than one...and she pushed Deidara off a bridge..." Realizing he had his friends' full attention, Sasori started to tell them the events of the evening.

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"Oh, my god! Fuck! That's a tree! Fence! Fence! Fucking psycho, that's a dog! We're gonna fucking die!"

"Tayuya, please...", Kimimaro whispered. They drove in silence for a few minutes, then Kimimaro said "You never did tell me what you and Kabuto-Sensei found at the coffee shop"

"Nothing. Well, outside of the ordinary anyway. There appeared to be a bit of broken glass under a table, but whatever had been broken was cleaned up"

"That's to be expected"

They fell silent a few minutes longer.

"FUCKING DUCK!", Tayuya suddenly yelled.

"Duck? Honestly Tayuya, there are better things than-woah!" Kimimaro swerved to avoid a duck that was crossing the road and stopped short. Kabuto's head snapped up and smacked back against the window he was leaning against with a dull thud.

"Fucking brilliant, Kimimaro. Crack his head open, too. He didn't loose enough blood from his arm".

Under any other circumstance Kimimaro would have just let Tayuya's harsh words slip down his back. Tonight, though, his nerves where shot. He was trying, damn it! Still managing to maintain some sense of calm, he unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door, and climbed out. "It's all yours", he said, motioning to the driver's seat.

"What? You want ME to drive?"

"You seem to know so much about it"

"Both of you be quiet. You're giving me a headache", Kabuto suddenly snapped.

They turned to stare at him. He'd been so quiet, they'd been sure he was unconscious, or atleast asleep. He was neither, but his face was very, very pale, sweat beaded on his brow, a look scarier than any they'd ever seen on Orochimaru on his face.

"I'll drive the damn car."

The younger kids watched in awe as he struggled out of the car and staggered around to the driver's side. Without so much as a hiss of pain, he climbed into the driver's seat and started up the car.

"Fucking weirdo! Get out of there, you goddamn psychopath"

"Tayuya." Kabuto's quiet voice was warning.

"Kabuto-Sensei, as a medical student you should know you can't drive. You're going to make your arm bleed."

"Well, obviously no one else can do it. I don't see what's so hard about driving. Orochimaru-San taught me how to drive in two days."

"Not everyone's as brilliant as you are." Tayuya muttered. She knew Kabuto was in pain, but that still didn't calm her down when he was being an ass.

"Please get down", Kimimaro whispered

"Hey! You guys alright over there...Oh. You're a girl" It was Toby's voice. He was walking towards them, Sakura in tow.

"Nice of you to notice", Tayuya spat at him acidly.

"Hey, can you drive, Toby?", Kimimaro asked casually.

"Well, I'm not supposed to, since my arm's in a cast, but I do it anyway" Toby looked confused.

"Great! You can drive before Kabuto-Sensei bleeds himself to death. We'll explain everything along the way."

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Tenshi watched Temari as she walked into the kitchen. Weird, she'd always thought Temari's hair was longer, probably because of the pigtails she wore. Down, her hair didn't even reach her shoulders. Temari was wearing plain white pajamas and appeared to be humming to herself as she poured herself a glass of milk from the fridge. It appeared insomnia was a problem shared by all of the members of the Sabaku family.

The orders had been clear-kill Temari and Kankuro Sabaku, and if Gaara or their uncle got in the way, kill them, too. Itachi was going to know what it ment to suffer, that was for sure. After all, while she killed off two of his closest friends, her partner was on her way to the hospital to take care of Sasuke. No one who'd been attacked would get away this time...

Temari sat down at the table and rested her head against her head, appearing deep in thought. Occassionally she sipped her milk or brushed the hair from her eyes. Tenshi pulled herself away from the window and crept quietly around towards the front door. _Don't move_ she whispered into the darkness.

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Something was wrong-Yashamaru could feel it in his heart. Something was seriously wrong with his nephews. He was used to Gaara's distance-that was nothing new-but usually the redhead could be coaxed into a small smile or have a short-lived laugh pulled from him. These days, however, Gaara wandered around like a zombie. He was even paler than normal with deep, dark circles lining his eyes. Yashamaru desprately wanted to ask him what was wrong, but he was worried that the boy would pull further away from him. At least he still went places with Lee, that provided Yashamaru with some comfort. If he was still going out with friends, then surely his moodiness wasn't anything to be _too_ worried about...

What bothered the young uncle even more than Gaara's behavior was Kankuro's. Sure, Kankuro hadn't exactly been what Yashamaru would call "talkative", but he was far more sociable than Gaara. After the attack on his sister, though, the boy had become withdrawn, often sitting brooding and alone. He stopped trimming his hair so his dark locks poked wildly from under the hoods of the black sweatshirts he wore and he'd taken to applying Kabuki makeup in such a way that he resembled a demonic teddy bear.

He certainly had his hands full, that was for sure. He yawned, suddenly tired, and glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning. If he went to bed now, he could get a few hours of sleep before he had to go to work. He stood from the table and went to put his empty glass in the sink. He could wash it when he got up. The young man froze at the sound of a door creaking open. "Gaara?", he called softly, wondering if perhaps his youngest nephew had gotten into a fight with Lee and had come home. "Ga-mmph". His second call was cut off by a hand clamping firmly over his mouth and something sharp being pressed against the small of his back.

"You've certainly grown calmer, Temari", a voice hissed in his ear. The glass in his hands clattered unnoticed to the floor. The voice sounded like a girl's, but the person holding onto him was definitely taller than he was. She thought he was Temari. She'd be disappointed, though. His niece was not home tonight, she was spending the evening at her friend TenTen's house.

"Do you think if you're calm and collected, your brothers will come help you again? You're sadly mistaken, girl."

Yashamaru threw out his arm, hitting the girl. He gave a hiss muffled by her hand as the blade slipped against his side. Ignoring the pain, he lashed out again, this time getting her off of him and knocking the knife from her hands. "Don't try that again"

"Wait...you're not Temari!", the girl cried, taking in his purple eyes for the first time.

"No", Yashamaru agreed, smiling. "I'm not."

The girl chuckled. "I had no intention of killing you, but you're in my way...".

Yashamaru's eyes grew wide as she pulled a gun out from the inside of her jacket.

"Sleep well", she said, and aimed the gun at him.

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Mwahahahaha. I am evil. CLIFFIE. Don't you all worry your pretty little heads off. I won't make you suffer long. Check back Sunday night for Chapter 10.


	10. Rescue 911

A/N: As promised, here is chapter 10. A lot has changed since chapter 1, as I slowly worked my way into the concrete plot you see unfolding before you. This was the bitch chapter to write, let me tell you now. As you can see, the rating went up. This is for suicide and child abuse. If these things offend you, than please, please, PLEASE read no further. I beg of you, the last thing I want is to offend someone. You have been warned.

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"Hey, Yashamaru...sorry for coming back here so late. Gai brought Kakashi home really drunk, so we decided to come back here."

Lee stared at his friend as they walked through the door. That was the most he had ever heard the quiet redhead say.

"He's probably sleeping", Lee offered when they got no response.

"No. I don't think so...", Gaara's green eyes scanned his house.

"What happened here?", Lee asked.

The house was in shambles. The couch was thrown over, it looked like things had been went through. Gaara could see the kitchen table flipped on it's side. There was a knife and broken glass on the floor, and in the midst of all that.

"Yashamaru!" Gaara ran into the kitchen. His uncle was lying curled on the floor, his hands wrapped around his side.

While Gaara checked on his uncle, Lee called the police and an ambulance.

"Come on, wake up", Gaara whispered, turning the blond man onto his back. His uncle was bleeding steadilly from a wound on his size that looked like it came from a knife as well as what looked like a bullet hole in his thigh. "Yashamaru"

Yashamaru's eyes fluttered open, the normally expressive purple orbs dull and glossy. "Gaara...get out of here...She might still be here..."

Gaara flinched. His uncle's voice was very weak and he couldn't miss the pain in it. Yashamaru was really hurting badly.

"Who?", the redhead demanded. "Who did this to you?" He was mentally planning a slow, painful, agonizing death to who ever it was that had dared to harm his kind-hearted uncle.

"Just go, Gaara. Hurry up." His voice sounded weaker and desprate.

"I called the cops and they're sending an ambulance", Lee said, stepping into the kitchen. "Are his wounds bad?"

"Shh...not so loud, Lee", Gaara scolded.

"We've got to get him out of here...", Lee whispered

"Yes, because we can just move someone who is bleeding", Gaara rolled his eyes. He stood up and moved to the refridgerator to pull down the first aid kit.

"What do you want me to do? How can I help?", Lee asked, kneeling beside Yashamaru.

"I'll bandage him up. You go outside and wait for the cops."

Lee stood up and wiped his hands on his jeans. "Alright", he agreed.

"You're not going anywhere."

The boys turned around and saw a girl from Temari's class pointing a gun at them. Her name, Gaara remembered, was Tenshi. She had Temari had done a project together earlier in the year.

"Don't either of you move" Tenshi shifted the gun so that it was on Lee.

Lee put his hands up in the air. Gaara, who now stood beside him, quickly swatted them down.

"Why are you doing this?", Gaara asked

Tenshi opened her mouth to speak to them, but was cut off by the sounds of sirens approaching.

For a moment, it looked like Tenshi was going to drop the gun. Her face went pale, and she was shaking. Then, without warning, she started shooting.

Lee and Gaara threw themselves on the ground as shot after shot went off. It felt like they remained frozen on the ground for an eternity, even though it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Vauguely, Lee thought he could hear the voices of police officers outside.

As quickly as it had started, the shooting stopped. Lee peeked his eyes open. Tenshi now had the gun pressed against her own temple. "No!", he screamed.

Tenshi ignored him and pulled the trigger. There was no way she would let herself be caught...

A short while later, after an unconscious Yashamaru had been put on a stretcher and the three of them where on their way to the hospital, Lee felt Gaara put his hand on his shoulder. His dark eyes locked onto the mint green ones of his friend. Gaara had an uncharacteristically gentle look on his face.

"Are you alright?", Gaara asked.

"I..." Lee trailed off. He was what? He was going to tell Gaara he was alright, but he couldn't. He wasn't bleeding or seriously injured, but he definitely wasn't "alright". He wouldn't be "alright" for a while. No, after seeing Tenshi kill herself infront of him, he would probably have nightmares for weeks.

Gaara stiffened as Lee's long, skinny arms locked around him without warning. The black-haired youth was crying on his shoulder. It made Gaara think back to the last time he had cried-eight years ago, when he had been six. His father had finally snapped, had finally had the last straw. He had killed their mother and then beaten Kankuro senseless before turning the knife he'd killed their mother with on himself.

He remembered all the blood everywhere and Temari screaming and the police coming and taking him and his sister away to go live with their uncle. He remembered Yashamaru's grief-stricken face as he was told his sister had been killed by her husband and how he had put his grief aside to comfort Gaara and Temari. He could still picture his uncle smiling at them as he promised they would go visit Kankuro in the hospital and get him a really nice get-well present-as soon as they had eaten just a few bites of their dinner.

Most of all, Gaara remembered how safe he had felt wrapped in Yashamaru's arms as he sobbed, his face pressed against his young uncle's chest, the young man silent, gently stroking his hair.

Feeling a little self-conscious Gaara lifted his hand and brushed it lightly against Lee's hair, surprised at how soft and silky it felt under his fingers. As the minutes passed and Lee's sobs quieted, Gaara found he didn't find comforting Lee as ackward as he thought he should have.

He glanced at Lee and saw that the dark-haired boy had fallen asleep. His face was pale, lips slightly parted, tears still clinging to his long eyelashes. He knew many people considered the boy unattractive, but fast asleep, with the moonlight streaming in onto his pale skin, Gaara had never seen anyone so beautiful.

A protective feeling washed over him, frightening him as much as it intrigued him. He glanced once more at the soft light on Lee's face and realized Lee ment a whole lot more to him than he was comfortable admitting.

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"Wakey wakey, eggs and bacey", a sweet-sounding voice chimed.

Sasuke opened his eyes and saw someone gazing down at him. A nurse, by the look of her uniform, but she was definitely younger than any nurse he had seen.

"My, my, my. You are an attractive one. I think you're actually better-looking than Itachi..."

Sasuke's fatigue lifted off him in an istant at the mention of his brother's name.

"Who are you?", he demanded, staring at her levelly.

The girl laughed. She had to give him credit. Not many people would behave so calmly after being woken up by strange people in the night, especially when their legs are in traction.

"My name's Hanabi. Tell me, how are things between you and Naruto?"

Sasuke couldn't stop the blush from creeping into his pale cheeks. That was all Hanabi needed.

"It's thanks to your brother that you're together, isn't it?", Hanabi asked.

"What does that matter?", Sasuke asked, thought he knew she was right. Itachi had, after all, set the two of them up.

"Well, you see, my big sister has a huge crush on Naruto. So you can imaging how upset she was when she overheard your brother talking to that stuck-up redhead, telling him about the cute blond that's been coming over and how he was going to set the two of you up."

Sasuke didn't have to think hard to know that she was talking about Sasori. Sasori, if Sasuke remembered clearly, had come to school half of the Friday before his date with Naruto to discuss his up-coming date with Deidara. Sasuke had had no idea Itachi had been planning to set him up with Naruto so far in advance.

Hanabi smiled at the horrified panic that flashed through his dark eyes. Sasuke reached for the small box placed directly in his reach-the nurse call button.

"Why isn't it working?", Sasuke muttered to himself.

Hanabi showed him the cut cord. "You've been disconnected. That won't work."

Sasuke dropped the remote, defeat in his eyes. It was over for him. No doubt Hanabi had locked the door. If he screamed, he'd be dead before the nurses got the door open.

"You're Hinata's little sister, right?", he asked, thinking very quickly. "Do you think Hinata would like it if you killed me just so she could date Naruto? Do you think she'd want her sister to go to jail for her?"

"Shut up", Hanabi hissed, her pale gray eyes flickering angrilly. She slapped him bodilly, her hand leaving an angry red mark against his white skin.

Sasuke rose his hand to his cheek, surprised at how much it hurt.

"Well, you're certainly rude." Naruto's voice called loudly, almost cheerfully. "Picking on a guy in tractor..."

"Traction", Sasuke corrected.

"Yeah. That."

Hanabi slapped her forehead. Her sister was in love with a total moron.

"How long have you been standing there?", she asked.

"Hmm...long enough to hear the whole conversation. I decided to jump in when you slapped Sasuke."

"I'm surprised you stayed quiet so long", Sasuke said, sounding amazed.

"Well, if you two are done conversing...I don't have all night", Hanabi muttered.

"Oh, but we do...think fast!", Naruto cried, throwing a tray full of medical supplies at her.

Hanabi dodged the tray and gasped as she found a bedsheet wrapped around her. Naruto had outsmarted her. Naruto, of all people.

"Let me go!", she screamed furiously.

"No.", Naruto said, securing her with the sheet. She struggled helplessly against it, watching as Naruto went over to Sasuke and started unhooking him from the bed.

"What are you doing?", Sasuke asked as Naruto tried to pick him up.

"What's it look like, I'm saving you. And we'd better hurry, because that sheet's not going to hold her forever."

Naruto managed to get his leg out of traction and got him into a wheelchair. Sasuke hissed in pain.

"Put the leg rest up!", he gasped.

Naruto obliged and unlocked the door. "Hold on. This is going to be quite a ride".

Naruto's voice was cheerful.

Sasuke, however, did not find humor in the situation. Ok. Maybe a little when mere seconds later Hanabi had broken free from her bindings and was chasing after them.

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"Ugh. Everyone's so quiet.", Itachi muttered. The silence in his car was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. "How about I put on some music? Maybe that'll cheer us up..."

"Go for it", Kisame muttered. He'd pulled off his jacket, which was now draped like a blanket over Deidara's sleeping form. He pressed his head against the window and sighed.

_That's all I wanted_ the singer on the radio trilled _sometimes love can be mistaken for a crime. That's all I wanted just to see my baby's blue eyes shine_...

Sasori reached out and turned off the radio. "Ummm...maybe we'll just skip the music...", he said softly, pulling Itachi's jacket closer around his still trembling frame. He and Deidara where going to get pnemonia. He knew it. He could already feel himself getting sick.

Itachi shrugged.

"You said you had Kabuto with you. Do you know if he's alright?" Kisame suddenly pipped up from the back seat. He tried to sound casual, but neither Sasori nor Itachi missed the faint note of worry in his voice.

"Kabuto? Yeah, he's the top student in our grade. I'm sure he's fine", Sasori said. He honestly wasn't worried. He was sure the silver-haired young man could look after himself.

"What does intelligence have to do with a psychotic killer?", Kisame asked.

"It means Sasori is sure Kabuto is smart enough to get himself out of whatever situation he's put himself in", Itachi replied. He eased the car into the hospital parking lot and looked for a place to park.

Sasori and Deidara would have to get medical treatment. He and Kisame would see them off, and then get down to Sasuke's room.

While Itachi was trying to determine the best place to park, he felt a car slam into his.

"Shit. I am changing my name to Kimishima(1)", Itachi muttered, pulling into the closest parking spot.

A truck pulled up along side them. Itachi was surprised and happy to see who it was.

"Toby! What are you doing here?", Kisame asked, climbing out of the car and craddling Deidara to him.

"I'm driving an injured person here", Toby explained.

"Well, I'm not exactly concerned about my car right now", Itachi said. He motioned to Sasori and Deidara. "Can I leave them in your hands?"

"Of course, of course", Toby replied cheerfully.

"Good. We'll follow you into the ER. You can stay with the patients. Kisame and I need to see Sasuke"

"No problem", Toby said, opening the doors and helping his party out.

Together the group walked into Konoha General. The night's adventure had just begun.

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A/N. 1: This is an S-Cry-Ed reference incase anyone didn't know. Kimishima is a young man who has absolutely no luck with cars at all and crashes his vehicle almost every episode.

I have no witty comentary this time around. I hoped you liked the chapter. It is now back to once a week updates, so come back next Sunday, and I shall have up chapter 11. Oh, and see the little review button? Please push it. Thanks!


	11. Welcome to Hell

A/N: And chapter 11...I'm going to be perfectly honest with you lot. I never expected to get this far in my fic. And yet, I'm in the home stretch. This fic is nearing its completion. Maybe three more chapters or so. So stick around. This one's here for the long haul!

Oh, before I forget. Someone sent me a private message asking how old Hanabi is supposed to be. Well, I know she's actually quite a bit younger than Hinata, but for fanfic purposes, she's 13, just one year younger than her sister. I just can't see an 8-year-old going around trying to murder people...

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"Look, miss", the bored-sounding receptionist told Tayuya. "We can't admit any more patients until the source of the disturbance is discovered. Some patients escaped and are running through this place like lunatics. So unless you need immediate surgery to live, you have to wait here. We have your friends stabalized, they'll be fine for the time being..."

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN "STABALIZED"? MY FRIEND'S ARM LOOKS LIKE IT WENT THROUGH A FUCKING WOOD CHIPPER!", Tayuya all but exploded.

"Your girlfriend is so gracious", Kabuto whispered to Kimimaro. "It makes me wonder how I managed to go without one for so long."

"Because you like guys." Kimimaro stood up and stretched.

"Do you have proof I like guys any more than I like girls?", Kabuto asked, a smile that looked both cute and creepy on his face.

"I guess not, but don't be so quick to judge Tayuya. She's just nervous. She doesn't know how to express nervousness like a normal person. Is your pain really bad?"

"Not so much anymore. I could really use a cup of water, though."

"I'll see if I can get one for you. That's the least they can give us. Do you want a drink, too?", Kimimaro asked Sasori.

"Nah. I'm alright", Sasori replied, pulling the thin blanket the nurses had given him tightly around his shoulders.

Twenty minutes in the waiting room, and that was all the help they'd been given. Paper dressing gowns and thin blankets that provided absolutely no insulation. Oh, and they had given Kabuto a shot of something to ease the pain in his arm, but hadn't bothered to wrap it. Stabalized his ass. He and Deidara would freeze to death and Kabuto would get some sort of horrible infection and wind up getting his arm amputated. He wondered if hospitals would hire a doctor with one arm.

Sasori sighed as he listened to Tayuya continue to badger the receptionist in vocabulary more colorful than a Picaso. He knew she ment well, and wanted to see them get the help they needed, but her language probably wasn't the best way to do it.

"Uggghh...Not so loud, whoever's yelling, un...", Deidara moanded beside him. The redhead shifted his attention to his boyfriend, whow as struggling to pull himself upright in his chair.

"Just relax", Sasori told him gently. "You don't have to get up if you don't want to."

Deidara stopped trying to sit straight and let himself remain slumped in the chair.

"The killer got away, un?", Deidara asked tiredly.

"I'm afraid she did...You don't remember anything after I pulled you from the water?", Sasori asked worridly.

"I remember crying, un. And punching Kisame in the nose, un..."

Sasori chuckled and gently brushed Deidara's bangs from his face. He frowned at the warmth of the skin underneath and the cut his fingers brushed against. "You're running a fever already."

"So? You've probbaly got one, too, un."

"Yeah. We're gonna die of pnemonia before we get in there..."

He looked up at Kimimaro, who was walking back over carrying not only a glass of water, but some cups of coffee, and two cups of hot tea. He stood up to help the younger boy.

"Here. Take the tea cups. The nurse said for you and Deidara to drink it. It'll help warm you up," he said.

Sasori took the tea cups from him. "Thanks."

Unfortunately for them, Tayuya picked that exact moment to give up her fight with the receptionist and come back to the group. She collided roughly with Kimimaro, knocking the cups out of his hands. Ice water and hot coffee splashed all over them. Sasori was only grateful he'd managed to get away before she'd knocked into him.

Kabuto bolted up from where he was dozing off and Toby and Sakura turned to stare as Tauyua screamed "fuck" at the top of her lungs. Kimimaro clapped his hand over her mouth and dragged her to sit by Kabuto.

Dispite himself, Sasori laughed.

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"What do you mean Sasuke Uchiha isn't in his room?", Itachi demanded angrily. Kisame placed his hand on Itachi's shoulder.

"H-He m-must h-h-have l-left", the nervous-looking female nurse stammered.

"He's in traction...how the hell is a kid in traction going to get up and leave?"Itachi never once rose his voice above a loud whisper. He didn't need to. He was terrifying enough without screaming.

"Maybe he was taken for an X-Ray or something", the nurse said, sounding a little calmer.

"Or something...this is great. This hospital looses 14-year-old boys..."

"Itachi...", Kisame said softly. He was frightened. He'd never seen Itachi like this before.

Itachi ignored him. "Why don't you run along before someone steals a baby from NICU."

The woman looked ready to cry.

"Itachi, hurtful words aren't going to get Sasuke back here. We need to go look for him."

"I'm sorry, boys..." the nurse was trembling. "You can't look for him. We're under lock-down. A patient escaped and is causing trouble. You'll have to go back to the waiting room..."

Itachi threw his head back and laughed. "I am going to find my brother."

"You...Can't..."

"Just try and stop me", Itachi said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Kisame nodded. "We are not going back to the waiting room".

"I'm afraid you have to..."

Itachi nodded to Kisame and they bolted pasr the girl, into the nearest elevator.

She raced after them, but they were quicker and managed to get the door closed before she could reach them.

"Well, we are officially criminals now. We're basically breaking and entering in a hospital", Kisame said lightly.

"When I find out who kidnapped my brother, I'm going to become a real criminal", Itachi's eyes flashed dangerously.

Kisame found he almost felt sorry for Sasuke's kidnapper.

Almost, but not really.

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"I want to stay with my uncle", Gaara told the paramedic as they reached the hospital.

"Sorry, kid", he replied. "This gentleman is going straight into surgery. You and your friend will have to wait. Is there someone you could call to pick you up?"

Gaara considered a moment-Temari was at TenTen's house and Kankuro...well, he wasn't sure where his brother was truthfully. He knew Gai would be more than willing to come get them, but as Lee was asleep and it was his call...he really didn't want to be picked up by him. Gaara shook his head.

"Well, you'll have to stay in the waiting room then. Don't worry, your uncle is in good hands. After this blood transfusion, we'll get that bullet out his leg, and then when he heals he'll have some therapy and he'll be good as new."

Gaara privately thought the fact that the paramedic knew his uncle was a man was a good sign.

"So just cheer up, Kid. Everything will be alright."

Gaara nodded. He just wasn't in the mood to argue.

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"I think...we finally lost her", Naruto gasped. He was leaning up against a wall, breathing hard, his tanned features flushed."

"Thank god...You keep banging my leg into door frames."

"Are all Uchihas whiny, or are you the exception?", Naruto asked, pushing himself off the wall a little.

"I don't know. Are all Uzumakis braindead morons, or is that pleasure all yours?", Sasuke retorted.

"Don't know. I don't have parents to compare myself to", Naruto replied. "I've been with Jiraiya since I was a baby."

"Oh" Sasuke lowered his gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry", he murmured, a pink tinge crossing his white face.

"Eh. No biggie", Naruto replied, flashing his boyfriend a huge grin.

"So, now what do we do? Stay here until one of the nurses finds us?", Sasuke asked.

"Hmmm...I guess. We could make out", Naruto suggested.

Sasuke started to wheel himself to the door. "So I will be outside waiting for Hanabi to find me"

Naruto grabbed the wheelchair. "Ease-up, Sasuke-Bastard. I was just kidding..."

"Good. For a minute I thought you went Neji-Hoe(1) on me", Sasuke said.

Naruto came up behind Sasuke and started gently massaging the boy's pale shoulders. "I could never be Neji-Hoe...Hey, cool! Vending machines!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "We're in the hospital's physical fitness center. They have a pool in here. Why wouldn't they have food?"

Naruto hurried to the vending machines. After careful debating, he came back with a can of cola and a bottle of water.

"Here, since you hate sweets", Naruto said, pushing the bottle of water into Sasuke's hands.

"Do you think it's a good idea to stay in one spot?", Sasuke asked, unscrewing the cap off the bottle and taking a sip.

Naruto chugged half his soda before replying. "Just relax. You worry too much."

"And maybe..." a voice said from the doorway "You should start worrying..."

The boys turned around in horror as they heard something being thrown into the room. A few seconds later, the room was filling up with fumes and it was getting hard to breathe. Hanabi had tossed knock-out gas into the room. Where had she gotten it...

Naruto ran to the door, his shirt pulled over his mouth.

"We're locked in!", he cried.

Sasuke's eyes went wide and he clamped both his hands over his mouth in a vain attempt to keep from breathing in the stuff. If he lost consciousness now, it was all over.

Naruto continued to bang on the door in the hope that someone would hear him. Finallyhe slipped against it, coughing. He fell unconscious.

Sasuke struggled to push himself to Naruto's side, feeling dizzy with each shove of the wheelchair.

The urge to breath finally became too much for him to bear. With a thud, Sasuke fell out of the wheelchair and landed by Naruto's side.

_Damn it _he mentally cursed before he, too, lost consciousness.

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"Welcome to the make-shift mental ward", Toby said, smiling as Gaara walked into the waiting room, a sleepy Lee in tow.

Lee rubbed his eyes and glanced at them blearily. He was ready to just curl up in a chair and sleep for, oh, maybe ten or twelve years.

"Shut the fuck up, Toby! You are the absolute most annoying little fucker on the planet!"

Deidara crossed off the 94 he had written on a paper plate and wrote 96 next to it.

Sasori glanced at him curiously. "What are you doing?"

"I'm writing how many time Tayuya says the f word, un", Deidara replied.

"You'll need more paper soon", Kimimaro told him.

"What the fuck was that?", Tayuya demanded.

"You are a wonderful person", her boyfriend replied.

"Damn straight", the redheaded girl replied, crossing her arms across her chest.

Gaara looked over to the door and wondered if it was too late to call Gai to come get them.

Lee seemed to have the same idea as Gaara, because he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket.

"NO CELLPHONES!", the receptionist yelled.

Lee and Gaara sighed. They were stuck. Trapped, with no way out.

They where going to loose their minds.

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A/N: Sorry if it seems a bit short. I'm running off a chapter outline. Anyhow, this is being submitted now since I won't be here Sunday. Enjoy the read. Please hit the little review button on the bottom. I will die of happiness if I manage to reach 100 reviews.


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